^  PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Purchased  by  the  Hamill  Missionary  Fund. 


JV  6455    .G8  1906 

Grose,  Howard  B.  1851-1939. 

Aliens  or  Americans? 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/aliensoramericanOOgros_0 


Coming  American's 


FORWARD  MISSION  STUDY  COURSES 

EDITED  UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF 
THE    YOUNG    PEOPLES    MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

ALIENS 

OR 

AMERICANS 
P 

HOWARD  B.  GROSE 

With  Introduction 

By  Josiah  Strong 


Literature  Department 
PRESBYTERIAN  HOME  MISSIONS 
156  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York  City 
1906 


Copyright,  1906 
Young  People's  Missionary  Movement 
New  York 


UNGUARDED  GATES 


Wide  open  and  unguarded  stand  our  gates, 

And  through  them  presses  a  wild,  motley  throng — 

Men  from  the  Volga  and  the  Tartar  steppes, 

Featureless  figures  of  the  Hoang-Ho, 

Malayan,  Scythian,  Teuton,  Celt,  and  Slav, 

Flying  the  old  world's  poverty  and  scorn; 

These  bringing  with  them  unknown  gods  and  rites. 

Those,  tiger  passions,  here  to  stretch  their  claws. 

In  street  and  alley  what  strange  tongues  are  these, 

Accents  of  menace  alien  to  our  air. 

Voices  that  once  the  Tower  of  Babel  knew ! 

O  Liberty,  White  Goddess !  is  it  well 

To  leave  the  gates  unguarded?    On  thy  breast 

Fold  Sorrow's  children,  soothe  the  hurts  of  fate. 

Lift  the  downtrodden,  but  with  the  hand  of  steel 

Stay  those  who  to  thy  sacred  portals  come 

To  waste  the  gifts  of  freedom.    Have  a  care 

Lest  from  thy  brow  the  clustered  stars  be  torn 

And  trampled  in  the  dust.    For  so  of  old 

The  thronging  Goth  and  Vandal  trampled  Rome. 

And  where  the  temples  of  the  Caesars  stood 

The  lean  wolf  unmolested  made  her  lair. 

— Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich. 


3 


TO  ONE 
WHO  CHERISHES  AMERICAN 
IDEALS,   WHO   HAS   INCULCATED  LOVE  OP 
COUNTRY  IN  HER  CHILDREN,  AND 
SOUGHT  TO  INSPIRE  IT  IN 
ALL— MY  WIFE 


5 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGL 

Preface    9 

Introduction,  by  Josiah  Strong   13 

I.    The  Alien  Advance   15 

II.    Alien  Admission  and  Restriction   51 

TII.    Problems  of  Legislation  and  Distribution..  87 

IV.    The  New  Immigration   121 

V.    The  Eastern  Invasion   157 

VI.    The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City   193 

VII.  Immigration  and  the  National  Character...  231 
VIII.    The  Home  Mission  Opportunity   267 

APPENDIXES 

A.  Tables  of  Immigrants  Admitted  and  Debarred  305 

B.  The  Immigration  Laws   309 

C.  Work  of  Leading  Denominations  for  the  For- 

eign   Population   314 

D.  Bibliography    321 


7 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Coming  Americans  Frontispiece 

The  Inflowing  Tide   Page  i8 

Ellis  Island  Immigration  Station   "  34 

Receiving  Room  at  Ellis  Island   "  59 

Detained  for  Special  Examination   "  74 

An  Appeal  from  the  Special  Inquiry  Board  to 

Commissioner   Watchorn   "  94 

The  Landing  at  the  Battery  in  New  York   "  102 

A  German  Family   "  128 

Italian  and  Swiss  Girls   "  144 

A  Group  of  Twelve  Different  Nationalities...  "  166 

Three  Types  of  Immigrants   "  180 

A  Group  of  Immigrants  Just  Arrived  at  Ellis 

Island    "  198 

An  Italian  Family  Crowded  in  a  New  York 

Tenement    "  210 

Four  Nationalities    "  236 

Portuguese  and  Spanish  Children   "  256 

An  Italian  Sunday  School  in  New  England..  "  283 

Sketch  Maps  and  Charts 

Immigration  at  the  Port  of  New  York  for  1906  "  32 

Immigrant  Distribution  by  States  for  1905   "  106 

Immigrant   Distribution   by    Races :  Scandi- 
navian   "  108 

Canadian  and  British   "  109 

Irish    "  114 

Germanic    "  115 

French  and  Iberic   "  146 

Slavic    "  171 

Changes  in  Sources  of  Immigration  Causing 

Increase  of  Illiteracy   "  125 

Countries  from  which  the  Slavs  Come   "  161 

Distribution  of  Slavs  in  the  United  States...  "  163 

Wave  of  Immigration  for  Eighty-seven  Years  "  308 
Colored  Chart  of  Races  of  Immigrants  for 

1905    End 

8 


PREFACE 


It  is  not  a  question  as  to  whether  the  aliens 
will  come.  They  have  come,  millions  of  them; 
they  are  now  coming,  at  the  rate  of  a  million  a 
year.  They  come  from  every  clime,  country,  and 
condition ;  and  they  are  of  every  sort :  good,  bad, 
and  indifferent,  literate  and  illiterate,  virtuous 
and  vicious,  ambitious  and  aimless,  strong  and 
weak,  skilled  and  unskilled,  married  and  single, 
old  and  young.  Christian  and  infidel,  Jew  and 
pagan.  They  form  to-day  the  raw  material  of 
the  American  citizenship  of  to-morrow.  What 
they  will  be  and  do  then  depends  largely  upon 
what  our  American  Protestant  Christianity  does 
for  them  now. 

Immigration — the  foreign  peoples  in  America, 
who  and  where  they  are,  whence  they  come,  and 
what  under  our  laws  and  liberties  and  influences 
they  are  likely  to  become — this  is  the  subject  of 
our  study.  The  subject  is  as  fascinating  as  it  is 
vital.  Its  problems  are  by  far  the  most  pressing, 
serious,  and  perplexing  with  which  the  American 
people  have  to  do.  It  is  high  time  that  our  young 
people  were  familiarizing  themselves  with  the 
facts,  for  this  is  preeminently  the  question  of 
to-day.   Patriotism  and  religion — love  of  country 

9 


10  Aliens  or  Americans? 


and  love  of  Christ — unite  to  urge  thoughtful 
consideration  of  this  great  question:  Aliens  or 
Americans  ?  One  aim  of  this  book  is  to  show  our 
individual  responsibility  for  the  answer,  and  how 
we  can  discharge  it 

Immigration  may  be  regarded  as  a  peril  or  a 
providence,  an  ogre  or  an  obligation — according 
to  the  point  of  view.  The  Christian  ought  to  see 
in  it  the  unmistakable  hand  of  God  opening  wide 
the  door  of  evangelistic  opportunity.  Through 
foreign  missions  we  are  sending  the  gospel  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  As  a  home  mission  God  is 
sending  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  our  shores  and 
very  doors.  The  author  is  a  Christian  optimist 
who  believes  God  has  a  unique  mission  for 
Christian  America,  and  that  it  will  ultimately  be 
fulfilled.  While  the  facts  are  in  many  ways 
appalling,  the  result  of  his  study  of  the  foreign 
peoples  in  our  country  has  made  him  hopeful 
concerning  their  Americanization  and  evangeliza- 
tion, if  only  American  Christians  are  awake  and 
faithful  to  their  duty.  The  Christian  young 
people,  brought  to  realize  that  immigration  is 
another  way  of  spelling  obligation,  must  do  their 
part  to  remove  that  tremendous  IF. 

These  newcomers  are  in  reality  a  challenge  to 
American  Christianity.  The  challenge  is  clear 
and  imperative.  Will  we  give  the  gospel  to  the 
heathen  in  America?  Will  we  extend  the  hand 
of  Christian  brotherhood  and  helpfulness  to  the 


Preface 


II 


stranger  within  our  gates  ?  Will  we  Christianize, 
which  is  the  only  real  way  to  Americanize,  the 
Aliens?  May  this  book  help  to  inspire  the  truly 
Christian  answer  that  shall  mean  much  for  the 
future  of  our  country,  and  hence  of  the  world. 

The  author  makes  grateful  acknowledgment 
to  all  who  have  assisted  by  suggestion  or  other- 
wise. He  has  tried  to  give  credit  to  the  authors 
whose  works  he  has  used.  He  is  under  special 
obligation  for  counsel  and  many  courtesies  to 
Josiah  Strong,  one  of  the  modern  patriot- 
prophets  who  has  sought  to  awaken  Americans 
to  their  Christian  duty  and  privilege. 

Howard  B.  Grose. 

Briarcliff  Manor,  June,  1906. 


INTRODUCTION 


A  million  immigrants ! 
A  million  opportunities ! 
A  million  obligations ! 

This  in  brief  is  the  message  of  Aliens  or 
Americans  f 

A  young  man  who  came  to  this  country  young 
enough  to  get  the  benefit  of  our  public  schools, 
and  who  then  took  a  course  in  Columbia  Univer- 
sit3%  writes :  "Now,  at  twenty-one,  I  am  a  free 
American,  with  only  one  strong  desire ;  and  that 
is  to  do  something  for  my  fellow-men,  so  that 
when  my  time  comes  to  leave  the  world,  I  may 
leave  it  a  bit  the  better."  These  are  the  words 
of  a  Russian  Jew ;  and  that  Russian  is  a  better 
American,  that  Jew  is  a  better  Christian,  than 
many  a  descendant  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

In  this  country  every  man  is  an  American  who 
has  American  ideals,  the  American  spirit, 
American  conceptions  of  life,  American  habits. 
A  man  is  foreign  not  because  he  was  born  in  a 
foreign  land,  but  because  he  clings  to  foreign 
customs  and  ideas. 

I  do  not  fear  foreigners  half  so  much  as  I 
fear  Americans  who  impose  on  them  and  brutally 
abuse  them.   Such  Americans  are  the  most  dan- 


13 


14  Aliens  or  Americans? 


gerous  enemies  to  our  institutions,  utterly  foreign 
to  their  true  spirit.  Such  Americans  are  the 
real  foreigners. 

Most  of  those  who  come  to  us  are  predisposed 
in  favor  of  our  institutions.  They  are  generally 
unacquainted  with  the  true  character  of  those 
institutions,  but  they  all  know  that  America  is 
the  land  of  freedom  and  of  plenty,  and  they  are 
favorably  inclined  toward  the  ideas  and  the 
obligations  which  are  bound  up  with  these  bless- 
ings. They  are  open  to  American  influence,  and 
quickly  respond  to  a  new  and  a  better  environ- 
ment. 

They  naturally  look  up  to  us,  and  if  with  fair 
and  friendly  treatment  we  win  their  confidence, 
they  are  easily  transformed  into  enthusiastic 
Americans.  But  if  by  terms  of  opprobrium,  such 
as  "sheeny"  and  "dago,"  we  convince  them  that 
they  are  held  in  contempt,  and  if  by  oppression 
and  fraud  we  render  them  suspicious  of  us,  we 
can  easily  compact  them  into  masses,  hostile  to 
us  and  dangerous  to  our  institutions  and  or- 
ganized for  the  express  purpose  of  resisting  all 
Americanizing  influences. 

Whether  immigrants  remain  Aliens  or  become 
Americans  depends  less  on  them  than  on  our- 
selves. 

JosiAH  Strong. 

New  York,  June  26,  1906. 


We  may  well  ask  whether  this  insweep- 
ing  immigration  is  to  foreignize  us,  or 
we  arc  to  Americanise  it.  Our  safety 
demands  the  assimilation  of  these  strange 
populations,  and  the  process  of  assimila- 
tion becomes  slower  and  more  difficult 
as  the  proportion  of  foreigners  increases. 

— ^Josiah  Strong. 


THE  ALIEN  ADVANCE 


15 


"And  Elisha  prayed,  and  said,  Jehovah,  I  pray  thee, 
open  his  eyes,  that  he  may  see.  And  Jehovah  opened  the 
eyes  of  the  young  man:  and  he  saw"  (2  Kings  vi.  17). 
Elisha's  prayer  is  peculiarly  fitting  now.  The  first 
need  of  American  Protestantism  is  for  clear  vision,  to 
discern  the  supreme  issues  involved  in  immigration, 
recognize  the  spiritual  significance  and  divine  providence 
in  and  behind  this  marvelous  migration  of  peoples,  and 
so  see  Christian  obligation  as  to  rise  to  the  mission  of 
evangelizing  these  representatives  of  all  nations  gathered 
on  American  soil. — The  Author. 

Out  of  the  remote  and  little-known  regions  of 
northern,  eastern,  and  southern  Europe  forever 
marches  a  vast  and  endless  army.  Nondescript  and 
ever-changing  in  personnel,  without  leaders  or  organiza- 
tion, this  great  force,  moving  at  the  rate  of  nearly 
1,500,000  each  year,  is  invading  the  civilized  world. 
— /.  D.  Whelpley. 

Political  optimism  is  one  of  the  vices  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  There  is  a  popular  faith  that  "God  takes 
care  of  children,  fools,  and  the  United  States."  Until 
within  a  few  years  probably  not  one  in  a  hundred  of 
our  population  has  ever  questioned  the  security  of  our 
future.  Such  optimism  is  as  senseless  as  pessimism  is 
faithless.  The  one  is  as  foolish  as  the  other  is  wicked. 
— Josiah  Strong. 


IS 


I 


THE  ALIEN  ADVANCE 


I.    A  Year's  Immigration  Analyzed 


"\X7'HAT  does  a  million  of  immigrants  a  year 
mean?  Possibly  something  of  more  sig- 
nificance to  us  if  we  put  it  this  way,  that  at 
present  one  in  every  eighty  persons  in  the  entire 
United  States  has  arrived  from  foreign  shores 
within  twelve  months.  Of  this  inpouring  human 
tide  one  of  the  latest  writers  on  immigration  says, 
in  a  striking  passage: 

"Like  a  mighty  stream,  it  finds  its  source  in  a 
hundred  rivulets.  The  huts  of  the  mountains  and 
the  hovels  of  the  plains  are  the  springs  which 
feed ;  the  fecundity  of  the  races  of  the  old  world 
the  inexhaustible  source.  It  is  a  march  the  like 
of  which  the  world  has  never  seen,  and  the 
moving  columns  are  animated  by  but  one  idea — 
that  of  escaping  from  evils  which  have  made 
existence  intolerable,  and  of  reaching  the  free  air 
of  countries  where  conditions  are  better  shaped 
to  the  welfare  of  the  masses  of  the  people. 

"It  is  a  vast  procession  of  varied  humanity. 
In  tongue  it  is  polyglot ;  in  dress  all  climes  from 

17 


A  Million 
a  Year 


The  Peaceful 

Invasion 


Variety  of 
Peoples 


l8  Aliens  or  Americans? 


pole  to  equator  are  indicated,  and  all  religions 
and  beliefs  enlist  their  followers.  There  is  no 
age  limit,  for  young  and  old  travel  side  by  side. 
There  is  no  sex  limitation,  for  the  women  are  as 
keen  as,  if  not  more  so  than,  the  men ;  and  babes 
in  arms  are  here  in  no  mean  numbers.  The  army 
carries  its  equipment  on  its  back,  but  in  no  pre- 
scribed form.  The  allowance  is  meager,  it  is 
true,  but  the  household  gods  of  a  family  sprung 
from  the  same  soil  as  a  hundred  previous  genera- 
tions may  possibly  be  contained  in  shapeless  bags 
or  bundles.  Forever  moving,  always  in  the  same 
direction,  this  marching  army  comes  out  of  the 
shadow,  converges  to  natural  points  of  distribu- 
tion, masses  along  the  international  highways, 
and  its  vanguard  disappears,  absorbed  where  it 
finds  a  resting-place."^ 
The  Ellis  See  the  living  stream  pour  into  America 

Island  Inflow  through  the  raceway  of  Ellis  Island.^  There  is 
no  such  sight  to  be  seen  elsewhere  on  the  planet. 
Suppose  for  the  moment  that  all  the  immigrants 
of  1905  came  in  by  that  wide  open  way,  as  eight 
tenths  of  them  actually  did.  If  your  station  had 
been  by  that  gateway,  where  you  could  watch  the 
human  tide  flowing  through,  and  if  the  stream 
had  been  steady,  on  every  day  of  the  365  you 
would  have  seen  more  than  2,800  living  beings — 
men,  women,  and  children,  of  almost  every  con- 

'  J.  D.  Whelpley,  The  Problem  e/the  Immigrant,  2. 
*  Entrance  Port  for  Immigrants  at  New  York. 


I 


The  Alien  Advance 


19 


ceivable  condition  except  that  of  wealth  or 
eminence — pass  from  the  examination  "pens" 
into  the  liberty  of  American  opportunity.  Since 
the  stream  was  spasmodic,  its  numbers  did  reach 
as  high  in  a  single  day  as  11,343. 

Imagine  an  army  of  nearly  20,000  a  week  a  Motley 
marching  in  upon  an  unprotected  country.  At  Procession 
the  head  come  the  motley  and  strange-looking 
migrants — largely  refugee  Jews — from  the  far 
Russian  Empire  and  the  regions  of  Hungary  and 
Roumania.  At  the  daily  rate  of  2,800  it  would 
take  this  indescribable  assortment  more  than  166 
days  to  pass  in  single  file.  Then  the  Italians 
would  consume  about  eighty  days  more.  For 
over  eight  months  you  would  have  watched  so 
large  a  proportion  of  illiteracy,  incompetency,  and 
insensibility  to  American  ideals,  that  you  would 
be  tempted  to  despair  of  the  Republic.  Nor 
would  you  lose  the  sense  of  nightmare  when  the 
English  and  Irish  were  consuming  forty-two  days 
in  passing,  for  the  "green"  of  the  Emerald  Isle 
is  vivid  at  Ellis  Island,  and  the  best  class  of  the 
English  stay  at  home.  The  flaxen-haired  and 
open-faced  Scandinavians  would  lighten  the  pic- 
ture, but  with  the  equally  sturdy  Germans  they 
would  get  by  in  only  a  month  and  four  days. 

This  much  is  certain,  whatever  may  be  thought  a  Process  of 
of  the  fanciful  procession.    No  American  who  ^enf^*'"" 
spends  a  single  day  at  Ellis  Island,  when  the 
loaded  steamships  have  come  in,  will  afterward 


20  Aliens  or  Americans? 


require  awakening  on  the  subject  of  immigration 
and  the  necessity  of  doing  something  effective  in 
the  way  of  Americanization.  A  good  view  of  the 
steerage  is  the  best  possible  enlightener. 
A  Graphic       A  million  a  year  and  more  is  the  rate  at  which 

Grouping       .  . 

immigrants  are  now  coming  into  the  United 
States.^  It  is  not  easy  to  grasp  the  significance 
of  such  numbers :  yet  we  must  try  to  do  so  if  we 
are  to  realize  the  problem  to  be  solved.  To  get 
this  mass  of  varied  humanity  within  the  mind's 
eye,  let  us  divide  and  group  it.  First,  recall  some 
small  city  or  town  with  which  you  are  familiar,  of 
about  10,000  inhabitants ;  say  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire,  where  the  treaty  of  peace  between 
Japan  and  Russia  was  agreed  upon ;  or  Saratoga 
Springs,  New  York ;  or  Vincennes,  Indiana ;  or 
Ottawa,  Illinois ;  or  Sioux  Falls,  South  Dakota ; 
or  Lawrence,  Kansas.  Settle  one  hundred  towns 
of  this  size  with  immigrants,  mostly  of  the 
peasant  class,  with  their  un-American  languages, 
customs,  religion,  dress,  and  ideas,  and  you  would 
locate  merely  those  who  came  from  Europe  and 
Asia  in  the  year  ending  June  30,  1905.  Those 
who  came  from  other  parts  of  the  world  would 
make  two  and  a  half  towns  more,  or  a  city  the 
size  of  Poughkeepsie  in  New  York,  seat  of 
Vassar  College,  or  Burlington  in  Iowa,  of  about 
25,000  each. 

'The  total  hnrqigration  into  the  United  States  for  the  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30,  1906,  was  1,100,73s 


The  Alien  Advance 


21 


Gather  these  immie:rants  by  nationahty,  and  Grouped  by 

,  ,   ,  .       ^        ,  ,  Nationality 

you  would  have  m  round  numbers  twenty-two 
Italian  cities  of  10,000  people,  or  massed  to- 
gether, a  purely  Italian  city  as  large  as  Minne- 
apolis with  its  220,000.  The  various  peoples  of 
Austria-Hungary — Bohemians,  Magyars,  Jews, 
and  Slavs — would  fill  twenty-seven  and  one  half 
towns ;  or  a  single  city  nearly  as  large  as  Detroit. 
The  Jews,  Poles,  and  other  races  fleeing  from 
persecution  in  Russia,  would  people  eighteen 
and  one  half  towns,  or  a  city  the  size  of  Provi- 
dence. For  the  remainder  we  should  have  four 
German  cities  of  10,000  people,  six  of  Scandi- 
navians, one  of  French,  one  of  Greeks,  one  of 
Japanese,  six  and  a  half  of  English,  five  of 
Irish,  and  nearly  two  of  Scotch  and  Welsh. 
Then  we  should  have  six  towns  of  between  Queer  Towns 

,  ,  ,    ,  ,  •     <      i       these  would  b( 

4,000  and  5,000  each,  peopled  respectively  by 
Belgians,  Dutch,  Portuguese,  Roumanians, 
Swiss,  and  European  Turks ;  while  Asian  Turks 
would  fill  another  town  of  6,000.  We  should 
have  a  Servian,  Bulgarian,  and  Montenegrin 
village  of  2,000;  a  Spanish  village  of  2,600;  a 
Chinese  village  of  2,100;  and  the  other  Asiatics 
would  fill  up  a  town  of  5,000  with  as  motley  an 
assortment  as  could  be  found  under  the  sky. 
Nor  are  we  done  with  the  settling  as  yet,  for  the 
West  Indian  immigrants  would  make  a  city  of 
16,600,  the  South  Americans  and  Mexicans  a 
place  of  5,000,  the  Canadians  a  2,000  village,  and 


22  Aliens  or  Americans? 


the  Australians  another;  leaving  a  colony  of 
stragglers  and  strays,  the  ends  of  creation,  to 
the  number  of  2,000  more.  Place  yourself  in 
any  one  of  these  hundred  odd  cities  or  villages 
thus  peopled,  without  a  single  American  inhabit- 
ant, with  everything  foreign,  including  religion ; 
then  realize  that  just  "such  a  foreign  population 
as  is  represented  by  all  these  places  has  actually 
been  put  somewhere  in  this  country  within  a 
twelvemonth,  and  the  immigration  problem  may 
assume  a  new  aspect  and  take  on  a  new 
concern. 

Grouped  by  But  let  US  Carry  our  imagination  a  little 
niiteracy  further.  Suppose  we  bring  together  into  one 
place  the  illiterates  of  1905 — the  immigrants  of 
all  nationalities,  over  fourteen  years  of  age,  who 
could  neither  read  nor  write.  They  would  make 
a  city  as  large  as  Jersey  City  or  Kansas  City, 
and  15,000  larger  than  Indianapolis.  Think  of 
a  population  of  230,000  with  no  use  for  book, 
paper,  ink,  pen,  or  printing  press.  This  mass 
of  dense  ignorance  was  distributed  some  way 
within  a  year,  and  more  illiterates  are  coming  in 
by  every  steamer.  Divide  this  city  of  ignorance 
by  nationalities  into  wards,  and  there  would  be 
an  Italian  ward  of  100,000,  far  outnumbering  all 
otliers ;  in  other  words,  the  Italian  illiterates 
landed  in  America  in  a  year  equal  the  population 
of  Albany,  capital  of  the  Empire  State.  The 
other  leading  wards  would  be:  Polish,  33,000; 


The  Alien  Advance 


23 


Hebrew,  22,000,  indicating  the  low  conditions 
whence  they  came;  Slav,  36,000;  Magyar  and 
Lithuanian,  12,000;  Syrian  and  Turkish,  3,000. 
These  regiments  of  non-readers  and  writers 
come  almost  exclusively  from  the  south  and  east  ) 
of  Europe.  Of  the  large  total  of  illiterates, 
230,882  to  be  exact — it  is  noteworthy  that  only 
seventy-five  were  Scotch ;  and  only  1 57  were 
Scandinavian,  out  of  the  more  than  60,000  from 
Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark.  That  almost 
one  quarter  of  a  total  million  of  newcomers 
should  be  unable  to  read  or  write  is  certainly  a 
fact  to  be  taken  into  account,  and  one  that 
throws  a  calcium  light  on  the  general  quality  of 
present-day  immigration  and  the  educational 
status  of  the  countries  from  which  they  come. 
Illiteracy  is  a  worse  reflection  upon  the  foreign 
government  than  upon  the  foreign  immigrant. 

To  complete  this  grouping,  we  should  go  one  The  Army  of 

.J-     .1  J         ,  •■  jr  J-    •  •  the  Unskilled 

step  further,  and  make  up  a  number  of  divisions 
according  to  occupation  and  no-occupation, 
skilled  and  unskilled  labor.  To  begin  with,  the 
unskilled  laborers  would  fill  a  city  of  430,000,  or 
about  the  size  of  Cincinnati.  Those  classified  as 
servants,  with  a  fair  question  mark  as  to  the 
amount  of  skill  possessed,  numbered  125,000 
more,  equal  to  the  population  of  New  Haven. 
Those  classified  as  without  occupation,  including 
the  children  under  fourteen,  numbered  232,000, 
equal  to  the  population  of  Louisville.  Gathering 


24  "  Aliens  or  Americans? 


into  one  great  body,  then,  what  may  fairly  be 
called  unskilled  labor,  the  total  is  not  far  from 
78o,cxx)  out  of  the  1,026,499  who  came.  This 
mass  would  fill  a  city  the  size  of  Boston,  Cam- 
bridge, and  Lynn  combined,  or  of  Cleveland  and 
Washington.  Imagine,  if  you  can,  what  kind  of 
a  city  it  would  be,  and  contrast  that  with  these 
centers  of  civilization  as  they  now  are. 
Whole  States  To  put  all  the  cmphasis  possible  upon  these 
Numbers'"  facts,  considcr  that  the  immigration  of  a  single 
year  exceeded  by  26,000  the  population  of  Con- 
necticut, which  has  been  settled  and  growing 
ever  since  early  colonial  days.  It  exceeded  by 
37,000  the  combined  population  of  Alaska, 
Arizona,  Nevada,  Idaho,  Wyoming,  and  Utah. 
These  immigrants  would  have  repopulated  whole 
commonwealths,  but  they  would  hardly  be  called 
commonwealths  in  that  case.  If  such  immigrant 
distribution  could  be  made,  how  quickly  would 
the  imperative  necessity  of  Americanization  be 
realized.  The  Italians  who  came  during  the 
year  would  exceed  the  combined  population  of 
Alaska  and  Wyoming.  The  Hungarians  and 
Slavs  would  replace  the  present  population  of 
New  Hampshire,  or  of  North  Dakota,  and  equal 
that  of  Vermont  and  Wyoming  together.  The 
Russian  Jews  and  Finlanders  would  replace  the 
people  of  Arizona.  The  army  of  illiterates  would 
repeople  Delaware  and  Nevada.  And  the  much 
larger  army  of  the  unskilled  would  exceed  by 


The  Alien  Advance 


50,000  the  population  of  Maine,  that  of  Colorado 
by  about  80,000,  and  twice  that  of  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

The  diagram  at  the  end  of  the  book,  taken  The  Race 
from  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner-General  P~P°"i«>°» 
of  Immigration  for  1905,  will  help  us  to  fix  in 
mind  the  race  proportions  of  the  present  immi- 
gration. The  increase  of  1905  over  1904  was 
213,629.  Almost  one  half  of  this  was  from 
Austria-Hungary,  and  all  of  it  was  from  four 
countries,  the  other  three  being  Russia,  Italy, 
and  the  United  Kingdom.  There  was  a  decrease 
from  Germany,  Sweden,  and  Norway. 

//.    The  Inflozv  Since  1820 
We  have  been  considering  thus  far  the  immi-  immigration 
gration  of  a  single  year.    To  make  the  effect  Totals  since 
of  this  survey  cumulative,  let  us  include  the 
totals  of  immigration  from  the  first.^  The 
official  records  begin  with  1820.    It  is  estimated 
that  prior  to  that  date  the  total  number  of  alien 
arrivals  was  250,000.    In  1820  there  M^ere  8,385 
newcomers,  less  than  sometimes  land  at  Ellis 
Island  in  a  single  day  now,  and  they  came  chiefly 
from  three  nations — Great  Britain,  Germany, 
and  Sweden.    The  stream  gradually  increased, 
but  with  many  fluctuations,  governed  largely  by 
the  economic  conditions.     The  highest  immi- 
gration prior  to  the  potato  famine  in  Ireland  in 

'  For  table  showing  immigration  for  each  year  from  1820  to  1905,  see 
Appendix  A. 


26  Aliens  or  Americans? 


1847  was  in  the  year  1842,  when  the  total  for  the 
first  time  passed  the  100,000  mark,  being  104,565. 
In  1849  the  number  leaped  to  297,024,  with  a 
large  proportion  of  the  whole  from  Ireland;  in 
1850  it  was  310,000;  while  1854  was  the  high 
year  of  that  period,  with  427,833.  Then  came  the 
panic  and  financial  depression  in  America,  and 
after  that  the  civil  war,  which  sent  the  immigra- 
tion figures  down.  It  was  not  until  1866,  af tee- 
the war  was  over,  that  the  total  again  rose  to 
300,000.  In  1872  it  was  404,806;  in  1873,  459,- 
803 ;  falling  back  then  until  1880,  when  a  high 
period  set  in.  The  totals  of  1881  (669,431)  and 
of  1882  (788,992)  were  not  again  equaled  until 


1903,  when  for  the  first  time  the  800,000  mark 
was  passed. 

Taking  the  figures  by  decades,  we  have  this 
enlightening  table : 

1821  to  1830    143.439 

1831  to  1840    599.125 

1841  to  1850    1,713.251 

1851  to  i860    2,598,214 

1861  to  1870    2,314,824 

1871  to  1880    2,812,191 

1881  to  1890    5,246,613 

1891  to  1900    3.687,564 

1901  to  1905    3,833,076 


Total,  1821  to  1905   22,948,297 


From  this  it  appears  that  more  aliens  landed 
in  the  single  decade  from  1880  to  1890  than  in 


The  Alien  Advance 


27 


the  period  of  forty-five  years  from  1820  to  1865. 
Indeed,  the  immigration  of  the  past  six  years 
more  than  outnumbers  that  of  the  forty  years 
from  1820  to  i860. 

Thus,  from  colonial  days  above  twenty-three 
millions  of  aliens  have  been  received  upon  these 
hospitable  shores.  And  more  than  thirteen 
millions  of  them  have  come  since  1880,  or  in  the 
last  quarter  century.  No  wonder  it  is  said  that 
the  invasion  of  Attila  and  his  Huns  was  but  a 
side  incident  compared  to  this  modern  migration 
of  the  millions. 

Canada,  our  northern  neighbor,  is  a  prosper- 
ous colony  of  5,371,315,  according  to  her  latest 
census.  We  could  almost  have  peopled  Canada 
entire  with  as  large  a  population  out  of  the  immi- 
gration of  the  decade  1880-1890.  More  than 
that,  the  whole  population  of  Scotland,  or  that  of 
Ireland,  above  four  and  a  quarter  millions,  could 
have  moved  over  to  America,  and  it  would  only 
have  equaled  the  actual  immigration  since  1900. 
If  the  whole  of  Wales  were  to  come  over,  the 
1,700,000  odd  of  them  would  not  have  equaled 
by  100,000  the  total  immigration  of  the  two  years 
1904-05.  If  all  Sweden  and  Norway  packed  up 
and  left  the  question  of  one  or  two  kingdoms  to 
settle  itself,  the  7,300,000  sturdy  Scandinavians 
would  fall  short  of  the  immigrant  host  that  has 
come  in  from  everywhither  since  1891.  More 
people  than  the  entire  population  of  Switzerland 


A  Startling 
Total  of 
33,000,000 


Impressive 
Comparisons 


28 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


(3,315,000)  have  landed  in  America  within  four 
years.  If  only  the  majority  of  these  aliens  had 
possessed  the  love  of  liberty  and  the  character- 
istic virtues  of  the  Protestant  Swiss,  our  problem 
would  be  very  different.  These  comparisons 
strongly  impress  the  responsibility  and  burden 
imposed  upon  America  by  practically  free  and 
wide-open  gates. 
The  Problem  Here  are  the  totals  which  we  have  now 
tion^"""'*"'  reached.  Of  the  23,000,000  aliens  who  have 
come  into  America  since  the  Revolution,  the  last 
census  (1900)  gave  the  number  then  living  at 
10,256,664.  A  census  taken  to-day  would  doubt- 
less show  about  14,000,000.  Add  the  children 
of  foreign  parentage  and  it  would  bring  the 
total  up  to  between  35,000,000  and  40,000,000. 
Mr.  Sargent  estimates  this  total  at  forty-six  per 
cent,  of  our  entire  population.  The  immigration 
problem  presents  nothing  less  than  the  assimila- 
tion of  this  vast  mass  of  humanity.  No  wonder 
thoughtful  Americans  stand  aghast  before  it. 
At  the  same  time,  the  only  thing  to  fear  is  fail- 
ure to  understand  the  situation  and  meet  it.  As 
Professor  Boyesen  says :  "The  amazing  thing  in 
Americans  is  their  utter  indifference  or  supine 
optimism.  'Don't  you  worry,  old  fellow,'  said  a 
very  intelligent  professional  man  to  me  recently, 
when  I  told  him  of  my  observations  during  a  visit 
to  Castle  Garden. 1  'What  does  it  matter  whether 


'Now  known  as  the  Battery,    See  footnote  j,  p.  54. 


The  Alien  Advance 


29 


a  hundred  thousand  more  or  less  arrive?  Even 
if  a  million  arrived  annually,  or  two  millions,  I 
guess  we  could  take  care  of  them.  Why,  this 
country  is  capable  of  supporting  a  population 
of  two  hundred  millions  without  being  half  so 
densely  populated  as  Belgium.    Only  let  them 

I  come — the  more  the  merrier !'  I  believe  this 
state  of  mind  is  fairly  typical.  It  is  the  sublime 
but  dangerous  optimism  of  a  race  which  has 
never  been  confronted  with  serious  problems." 
But  we  believe  it  is  the  optimism  of  a  race  which, 
when  fairly  brought  face  to  face  with  crises, 

I  will  not  fail  to  meet  them  in  the  same  spirit  that 
has  won  the  victories  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
and  established  a  free  government  of,  by,  and  for 

i    the  people  in  America. 

]  ///.    Why  They  Come 

j  The  causes  of  immigration  are  variously  The  causes  of 
stated,  but  compressed  into  three  words  they  i™™'ffratioo 
are:  Attraction,  Expulsion,  Solicitation.  The 
attraction  comes  from  the  United  States,  the 
expulsion  from  the  Old  World,  and  the  solicita- 
tion from  the  great  transportation  lines  and  their 
emissaries.  Sometimes  one  cause  is  more  potent, 
sometimes  another.  Of  late,  racial  and  religious 
persecution  has  been  active  in  Europe,  and 
America  gets  the  results.  "In  Russia  there  is  an 
outbreak,  hideous  and  savage,  against  the  Jew, 
and  an  impulse  is  started  whose  end  is  not 


30  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Expulsion  reached  until  you  strike  Rivington  Street  in  the 
ghetto  of  New  York.  The  work  begun  in  Russia 
ends  in  the  seventeenth  ward  of  New  York." 
Cause  and  effect  are  manifest.  Military  service 
is  enforced  in  Italy ;  taxes  rise,  overpopulation 
crowds,  poverty  pinches.  As  a  result,  the  stream 
flows  toward  America,  where  there  is  no  military' 
service  and  no  tax,  and  where  steady  work  and 

Attraction  high  wages  seem  assured.  The  mighty  magnet 
is  the  attractiveness  of  America,  real  or  pictured. 
America  is  the  magic  word  throughout  all 
Europe.  No  hamlet  so  remote  that  the  name  has 
not  penetrated  its  peasant  obscurity.  America 
means  two  things — money  and  liberty — the  two 
things  which  the  European  peasant  (and  often 
prince  as  well)  lacks  and  wants.  Necessity  at 
home  pushes ;  opportunity  in  America  pulls. 
Commissioner  Robert  Watchom,  of  the  port  of 
New  York,  packs  the  explanation  into  an  epi- 
gram :  "American  wages  are  the  honey-pot  that 
brings  the  alien  flies."  He  says  further:  "If  a 
steel  mill  were  to  start  in  a  Mississippi  swamp 
paying  wages  of  $2  a  day,  the  news  would  hum 
through  foreign  lands  in  a  month,  and  that 
swamp  would  become  a  beehive  of  humanity  and 
industry  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time." 
Dr.  A.  F.  Schauffler  says,  with  equal  pith,  that 
"the  great  cause  of  immigration  is,  after  all,  that 
the  immigrants  propose  to  better  themselves  in 
this  country.    They  come  here  not  because  they 


The  Alien  Advance 


31 


love  us,  or  because  we  love  them.  They  come 
here  because  they  can  do  themselves  good,  not 
because  they  can  do  us  good."^  That  is  natural 
and  true ;  and  it  furnishes  excellent  reason  why 
we  must  do  them  good  in  order  that  they  may  not 
do  us  evil.  To  make  their  good  ours  and  our 
good  theirs  is  both  Christian  and  safe. 

The  three  causes  produce  three  classes  of  Three  classes 
immigrants:   i.  Natural;  2.  Assisted;  and  3. 
Solicited. 

The  prosperity  of  this  country  has  undoubtedly  Normal 
chiefly  influenced  immigration  in  the  past.  This  condltTons** 
is  shown  by  the  marked  relationship  between 
industrial  and  commercial  activity  in  the  United 
States  and  the  volume  of  immigration.^  Our 
prosperity  not  only  induces  desire  to  come  but 
makes  coming  possible.  The  testimony  before 
the  Industrial  Commission  showed  that  from 
forty  to  forty-five  per  cent,  of  the  immigrants 
have  their  passage  prepaid  by  friends  or  relatives 
in  this  country,  and  from  ten  to  twenty-five  per 
cent,  more  buy  their  tickets  abroad  with  money 
sent  from  the  United  States.  In  1902  between 
$65,000,000  and  $70,000,000  was  sent  home  to 
Italy  alone  from  the  United  States,  and  the 
stream  of  earnings  flowing  out  to  Ireland  and 

'  City  Mission  Monthly,  April,  iqoz. 

^Those  who  are  interested  in  this  feature  can  trace — ^by  examining  the 
table  in  the  Appendix  which  gives  the  immigration  by  years  since  1820— 
the  relation  between  prosperity  and  immigration.  The  effect  of  the 
panics  of  1837,  1843,  1873,  i8q3,  and  the  depression  caused  by  the  Civil 
War,  will  be  seen  clearly  in  the  immigration  totals.  This  subject  is 
treated  in  Immigration,  17  ff. 


The  Alien  Advance 


33 


Germany  and  Sweden  and  Hungary  has  been 
not  less  steady.  American  prosperity  has  been 
feeding  and  paying  taxes  for  millions  of  people 
who  owe  far  more  to  our  government  than  to 
their  own,  and  foreign  governments  have  been 
reaping  the  benefit.  The  United  States  has  a 
small  standing  army  of  its  own,  but  through  the 
gold  sent  abroad  by  the  alien  wage  earners  here 
we  have  been  helping  maintain  the  vast  arma- 
ments of  Europe.  The  letters  and  the  money 
sent  by  immigrants  to  the  home  folks  awaken  the 
desires  and  dreams  that  mean  more  immigrants. 
The  United  States  Post-office  is  a  marvelous 
immigration  agent  in  Europe.  Immigrants  are 
not  the  only  persons  induced  to  migrate  through 
the  feeling  that  where  one  is  not  will  prove  a 
much  better  place  than  where  one  is.  That  seems 
to  inhere  in  human  nature. 

"Not  only  the  American  money  and  letters,  but  Amencaa 
the  American  ideas  are  at  work  abroad,"  says  the  ^"^^^^ 
Rev.  F.  M.  Goodchild,  D.D.,^  in  a  recent  address : 
"The  praises  of  America  are  told  abroad  by 
every  person  who  comes  here  and  gets  along. 
Some  things  to  be  sure,  these  people  miss — the 
blue  skies  of  Italy  and  the  vineyards  on  the  hill- 
side. But  they  have  for  them  the  compensation 
of  such  a  liberty  as  they  never  knew  before.  The 
real  reason  why  all  southern  Europe  is  in  a  tur- 
moil to-day,  is  that  American  ideas  of  liberty  are 

'Published  in  Bafitist  Home  Mission  Monthly  for  July,  1906. 


34  Aliens  or  Americans? 


working  there  like  leaven.  We  get  our  notions 
of  liberty  from  the  Bibl^  and  from  the  men  who 
forced  the  Magna  Charta  from  King  John  at 
Runnymede,  but  all  other  peoples  in  the  world 
seem  to  be  getting  their  ideas  of  liberty  from  us. 
That  is  what  is  the  matter  with  the  Old  World 

The  American  to-day.  The  American  idea  is  working  like  leaven. 

'■^"^  That  is  the  force  at  work  in  France,  where  abso- 

lute divorce  has  just  been  proclaimed  between 
Church  and  State.  That  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 
movements  in  Russia,  where  the  Stundists  have 
just  won  religious  liberty,  and  where,  let  us  hope, 
all  classes  of  people  ere  long  will  have  won  com- 
plete civil  liberty.  These  people  have  felt  the 
uplift  of  our  American  free  institutions  and  they 
want  them  for  themselves.  They  have  heard 
'Yankee  Doodle,'  and  the  'Star  Spangled  Ban- 
ner,' and  'My  Country,  'tis  of  Thee,'  and  they 
cannot  get  the  music  of  liberty  out  of  their  ears 
and  their  hearts.  Broughton  Brandenburg  tells 
us  that  he  heard  some  Italians  who  had  been  in 
America  singing  our  classic  song  'Mr.  Dooley' 
in  the  vineyards  near  Naples." 

IV.    What  the  Immigrants  Say 

Personal  Let  thc  immigrants  themselves  tell  why  they 
come.  These  testimonies  are  typical,  condensed 
from  a  most  interesting  volume  of 
autobiography,^  fresh  and  illuminating. 

*  Hamilton  Holt,    Undistinguished  Americans. 


Testimony 


The  Alien  Advance 


35 


A  German  nvirse  girl  says :  "I  heard  about  how  ^  German 
easy  it  was  to  make  money  in  America  and 
became  very  anxious  to  go  there.  I  was  restless 
in  my  home ;  mother  seemed  so  stern  and  could 
not  understand  that  I  wanted  amusement.  I 
sailed  from  Antwerp,  the  fare  costing  $35.  My 
second  eldest  sister  met  me  with  her  husband  at 
Ellis  Island  and  they  were  glad  to  see  me  and  I 
went  to  live  with  them  in  their  flat  in  West 
Thirty-fourth  Street,  New  York.  A  week  later 
I  was  an  apprentice  in  a  Sixth  Avenue  millinery 
store  earning  four  dollars  a  week.  I  only  paid 
three  for  board,  and  was  soon  earning  extra 
money  by  making-  dresses  and  hats  at  home." 
Friends  in  Germany  would  be  sure  to  hear  of  this 
new  condition. 

Why  do  the  Poles  come?  A  Polish  sweat-shop  A  Pole 
girl,  telling  her  life  story,  answers.  The  father 
died,  then  troubles  began  in  the  home  in  Poland. 
Little  was  needed  by  the  widow  and  her  child, 
but  even  soup,  black  bread,  and  onions  they  could 
not  always  get.  At  thirteen  the  girl  was  handy  at 
housekeeping,  but  the  rent  fell  behind,  and  the 
mother  decided  to  leave  Poland  for  America, 
where,  "we  heard,  it  was  much  easier  to  make 
money.  Mother  wrote  to  Aunt  Fanny,  who  lived 
in  New  York,  and  told  her  how  hard  it  was  to 
live  in  Poland,  and  Aunt  Fanny  advised  her  to 
come  and  bring  me."  Thousands  could  tell  a 
similar  story  to  that.    "Easier  to  make  money" 


36 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


has  allured  multitudes  to  leave  the  old  home  and 
land. 

A  Russian  A  Lithuanian  (Russian)  tells  how  it  was  the 
tra\'eling  shoemaker  that  made  him  want  to  come 
to  America.  This  shoenuker  learned  all  the 
news,  and  smuggled  newspapers  across  the  Ger- 
man line,  and  he  told  the  boy's  parents  how 
wrong  it  was  to  shut  him  out  of  education  and 
liberty  by  keeping  him  at  home.  "That  boy  must 
go  to  America."  he  said  one  night.  "My  son  is 
in  tlie  stock>"ards  in  Oiicago."  These  were  some 
of  his  reasons  for  going:  "You  can  read  free 
papers  and  prayer  books :  you  can  ha\'e  free 
meetings,  and  talk  out  what  you  think."  And 
more  precious  far,  you  can  have  "life,  liberty, 
and  the  getting  of  happiness."  When  time  for 
military  sernce  drew  near,  these  arguments  for 
America  prevailed  and  tlie  boy  was  smuggled 
out  of  his  native  land.  "It  is  against  the  law  to 
sell  tickets  to  America,  but  my  father  saw  the 
secret  agent  in  tlie  \-illage  and  he  got  a  ticket 
from  Gemiany  and  found  us  a  guide.  I  had 
bread  and  cheese  and  vodka  (liquor "4  and  clothes 
in  my  bag.  My  father  gave  me  $50  besides  my 
ticket."  Bribery  did  die  rest,  and  thus  this  immi- 
grant obtained  his  liberty"  and  chance  in  America. 
The  American  idea  is  leavening  Russia  surely 
enough. 

An  Italian  Italian  bootblack  who  already  owns  se\-eral 

bootblacking  establishments  in  this  country,  was 


The  Alien  Advance 


trained  to  a  beggar's  life  in  Italy,  and  ran  away. 
"Now  and  then  I  had  heard  things  about  America 
— that  it  was  a  far-off  country  where  everybody 
was  rich  and  that  Italians  went  there  and  made 
plenty  of  money,  so  that  they  could  return  to 
Italy  and  live  in  pleasure  ever  after."  He  worked 
his  passage  as  a  coaler,  and  was  passed  at  Ellis 
Island  through  the  perjury  of  one  of  the  bosses 
who  wring  money  out  of  tlie  immigrants  in  the 
way  of  commissions,  getting  control  of  them  by 
the  criminal  act  at  the  very  entrance  into 
American  life. 

A  Greek  peddler,  a  graduate  of  the  high 
school  at  Sparta — think  of  a  modern  high  school 
in  ancient  Sparta ! — after  two  years  in  the  army, 
was  ready  for  life.  "All  these  later  years  I  had 
been  hearing  from  America.  An  elder  brother 
was  there  who  had  found  it  a  fine  country  and 
was  urging  me  to  join  him.  Fortunes  could 
easily  be  made,  he  said.  I  got  a  great  desire  to 
see  it,  and  in  one  way  and  another  I  raised  the 
money  for  fare — 250  francs — ($50)  and  set  sail 
from  the  old  port  of  Athens.  I  got  ashore  with- 
out any  trouble  in  New  York,  and  got  work 
immediately  as  a  pushcart  man.  Six  of  us  lived 
together  in  two  rooms  down  on  Washington 
Street.  At  the  end  of  our  day's  work  we  all 
divided  up  our  money  even;  we  were  all  free." 

A  Swedish  farmer  says :  "A  man  who  had  a  Swede 
been  living  in  America  once  came  to  visit  the 


38  Aliens  or  Americans? 


little  village  near  our  cottage.  He  wore  gold 
rings  set  with  jewels  and  had  a  fine  watch.  He 
said  that  food  was  cheap  in  America  and  that  a 
man  could  earn  nearly  ten  times  as  much  there 
as  in  Sweden.  There  seemed  to  be  no  end  to  his 
money."  Sickness  came,  with  only  black  bread 
and  a  sort  of  potato  soup  or  gruel  for  food,  and 
at  last  it  was  decided  that  the  older  brother  was 
to  go  to  America.  The  first  letter  from  him  con- 
tained this :  "I  have  work  with  a  farmer  who  pays 
me  sixty-four  kroner^  a  month  and  my  board.  I 
send  you  twenty  kroner,  and  will  try  to  send 
that  every  month.  This  is  a  good  country. 
All  about  me  are  Swedes,  who  have  taken 
farms  and  are  getting  rich.  They  eat  white 
bread  and  plenty  of  meat.  One  farmer,  a  Swede, 
made  more  than  25,000  kroner  on  his  crop  last 
year.  The  people  here  do  not  work  such  long 
hours  as  in  Sweden,  but  they  work  much  harder, 
and  they  have  a  great  deal  of  machinery,  so  that 
the  crop  one  farmer  gathers  will  fill  two  big 
bams." 

An  Irish  An  Irish  cook,  one  of  "sivin  childher,"  had  a 
Woman  gistcr  Tilly,  who  emigrated  to  Philadelphia, 
started  as  a  greenhorn  at  $2  a  week,  learned  to 
cook  and  bake  and  wash,  all  American  fashion, 
and  before  a  year  was  gone  had  money  enough 
laid  up  to  send  for  the  teller  of  the  story.  The 
two  gradually  brought  over  the  whole  family. 

The  Swedish  krone  (kro-ne)  has  a  value  of  about  27  cents. 


The  Alien  Advance 


39 


and  Joseph  owns  a  big  flour  store  and  Phil  is  a 
broker,  while  his  son  is  in  politics  and  the  city 
council,  and  his  daughter  Ann  (she  calls  herself 
Antoinette  now)  is  engaged  to  a  lawyer  in  New 
York.  That  is  America's  attractiveness  and 
opportunity  and  transformation  in  a  nutshell. 

A  Syrian,  born  on  the  Lebanon  range,  went  Foreign 
to  an  American  mission  school  at  fifteen,  learned  schoo°^ 
much  that  his  former  teacher  the  friar  had  cause  of 
warned  him  against,  had  his  horizon  broadened,  "''""^''^^ 
gave  up  his  idea  of  becoming  a  Maronite  monk 
when  he  learned  that  there  were  other  great 
countries  beside  Syria,  and  had  all  his  old  ideas 
overthrown  by  an  encyclopedia  which  said  the 
United  States  was  a  larger  and  richer  country 
than  Syria  or  even  Turkey.  The  friar  was  angry 
and  said  the  book  told  lies,  and  so  did  the  patri- 
arch, who  was  scandalized  to  think  such  a  book 
should  come  to  Mount  Lebanon ;  but  the  Ameri- 
can teacher  said  the  encyclopedia  was  written 
by  men  who  knew,  and  the  Syrian  boy  finally 
decided  to  go  to  the  United  States,  where  "we 
had  heard  that  poor  people  were  not  oppressed." 
His  mother  and  uncle  came,  too,  and  as  the  boy 
was  a  good  penman  he  secured  work  without 
difficulty  in  an  Oriental  goods  store.  As  for  his 
former  religious  teaching  he  says :  "The  Ameri- 
can teacher  never  talked  to  me  about  religion ; 
but  I  can  see  that  those  monks  and  priests  are 
the  curse  of  our  country,  keeping  the  people  in 


40 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


ignorance  and  grinding  the  faces  of  the  poor, 
while  pretending  to  be  their  friends."  In  his 
case  it  was  the  foreign  mission  school  that  was 
the  magnet  to  America. 

\  Japanese  A  Japanese  says :  "The  desire  to  see  America 
was  burning  in  my  boyish  heart.  The  land  of 
freedom  and  civilization  of  which  I  had  heard 
so  much  from  missionaries  and  the  wonderful 
story  of  America  I  had  heard  from  those  of  my 
race  who  returned  from  there  made  my  longing 
ungovernable."  A  popular  novel  among  Japan- 
ese boys,  "The  Adventurous  Life  of  Tsurukichi 
Tanaka,  Japanese  Robinson  Crusoe,"  made  a 
strong  impression  upon  him,  and  finally  he 
decided  to  come  to  this  country  to  receive  an 
American  education. 

A  Chinese  A  representative  Chinese  business  man  of  New 
York  was  taught  in  childhood  that  the  English 
and  Americans  were  foreign  devils,  the  latter 
false,  because  having  made  a  treaty  by  which 
they  could  freely  come  to  China  and  Chinese  as 
freely  go  to  America,  they  had  broken  the  treaty 
and  shut  the  Chinese  out.  When  he  was  six- 
teen, working  on  a  farm,  a  man  of  his  tribe  came 
back  from  America  "and  took  ground  as  large 
as  four  city  blocks  and  made  a  paradise  of  it." 
He  had  gone  away  a  poor  boy,  now  he  returned 
with  unlimited  wealth,  "which  he  had  obtained 
in  the  country  of  the  American  wizards.  He  had 
become  a  merchant  in  a  city  called  Mott  Street, 


The  Alien  Advance 


41 


so  it  was  said.  The  wealth  of  this  man  filled 
my  mind  with  the  idea  that  I,  too,  would  go 
to  the  country  of  the  wizards  and  gain  some 
of  their  wealth."  Landing  in  San  Francisco, 
before  the  exclusion  act,  he  started  in  American 
life  as  a  house  servant,  but  finally  became  a 
Mott  Street  merchant,  as  he  had  intended  from 
the  first. 

Thus  we  have  gone  the  rounds  of  immi-  Fo^^ne  and 


Freedom 


grants  of  various  races.  The  two  ideas — 
fortune  and  freedom — lie  at  the  basis  of  immi- 
gration, although  the  money  comes  first  in 
nearly  all  cases.  These  testimonies  could  be 
multiplied  indefinitely.  Ask  the  first  immi- 
grant you  can  talk  with  what  brought  him, 
and  find  out  for  yourself.  Mr.  Brandenburg  says 
a  Greek  who  was  being  deported  told  him  that  all 
Greece  was  stirred  up  over  the  matter  of  emigra- 
tion, and  that  in  five  years  the  number  of  Greeks 
coming  to  the  United  States  would  have  increased 
a  thousand  per  cent.^  The  reasons  are  the  too 
onerous  military  duties  in  Greece  and  prosperity 
of  Greeks  in  America.  The  remittances  fired 
the  zeal  of  the  home  people  to  follow,  and  the 
candymakers'  shops  were  full  of  apprentices, 
because  the  idea  had  gone  abroad  that  candy- 
makers  could  easily  gain  a  fortune  in  America. 

From  these  illustrations,  it  can  readily  be  seen  showing  only 
how  widespread  is  the  knowledge  of  America  as  ^^'esnghtside 

Broughton  Brandenburg,  Imfiorled  Americans,  37. 


42 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


a  desirable  place.  The  other  side  is  rarely  told 
and  that  is  the  pitiful  side  of  it.  The  stories  that 
go  back  are  always  of  the  fortunes,  not  of  the 
misfortunes,  of  the  money  and  not  of  the  miser}^ 

V.    Solicitation  an  Evil 

If  immigration  were  left  to  the  natural  causes, 
there  would  be  little  reason  for  apprehension.  It 
is  in  the  solicited  and  assisted  immigration  that  the 
worst  element  is  found.  Commercial  greed  lies 
at  the  root  of  this,  as  of  most  of  the  evils  which 
afflict  us  as  a  nation.  The  great  steamship  lines 
have  made  it  cheaper  to  emigrate  than  to  stay  at 
home,  in  many  cases ;  and  every  kind  of  illegal 
inducement  and  deceit  and  allurement  has  been 
employed  to  secure  a  full  steerage.  The  ramifi- 
cations of  this  transportation  system  are  wonder- 
ful. It  has  a  direct  bearing,  too,  upon  the 
character  of  the  immigrants.  Easy  and  cheap 
transportation  involves  deterioration  in  quality. 
In  the  days  when  a  journey  across  the  Atlantic 
was  a  matter  of  weeks  or  months  and  of  consid- 
erable outlay,  only  the  most  enterprising,  thrifty, 
and  venturesome  were  ready  to  try  an  uncertain 
future  in  an  unknown  land.  The  immigrant  of 
those  days  was  likely,  therefore,  to  be  of  the 
sturdiest  and  best  type,  and  his  coming  increased 
the  general  prosperity  without  lowering  the  moral 
tone.  Now  that  the  ocean  has  become  little  more 
than  a  ferry,  and  the  rates  of  railway  and  steam- 


The  Alien  Advance 


43 


ship  have  been  so  reduced,  it  is  the  least  thrifty 
and  prosperous  members  of  their  communities 
that  fall  readiest  prey  to  the  emigration  agent. 

Assisted  immigration  is  the  term  used  to  cover  Assisted 
cases  where  a  foreign  government  has  eased  i"""'eration 
itself  of  part  of  the  burden  of  its  paupers,  insane,  ^ 
dependents,  and  delinquents  by  shipping  them  to 
the  United  States.    This  was  not  uncommon  in  ^ 
the  nineteenth  century,  especially  in  the  case  of 
local  and  municipal  governments.  Our  laws  were 
lax,  and  for  a  time  nearly  everybody,  sane 
or  insane,  sound  or  diseased,  was  passed.  The 
financial  gain  to  the  exporting  government  can  i 
be  seen  in  the  fact  that  it  costs  about  $150  per 
head  a  year  to  support  dependents  and  delinquents 
in  this  country,  while  it  would  not  cost  the  foreign  j 
authorities  more  than  $50  to  transport  them 
hither.    This  policy  seems  scarcely  credible,  but 
Switzerland,  Great  Britain,  and  Ireland  followed 
it  thriftily  until  our  laws  put  a  stop  to  it,  in  large 
part,  by  returning  these  undesirable  persons  I 
whence  they  came,  at  the  expense  of  the  steam- 
ship companies  bringing  them.    It  was  not  until 
1882,  however,  that  our  government  passed  laws 
for  self -protection,  and  in  189 1  another  law  made 
"assisted"  immigrants  a  special  class  not  to  be 
admitted. 

Other  and  incidental  causes  there  are,  such  as  other  causes 
the  influence  of  new  machinery,  opening  the  ^ 
way  for  more  unskilled  labor,  such  as  the  ordi- 


44  Aliens  or  Americans? 


nary  immigrant  has  to  sell ;  the  protective  tariff, 
which  shuts  out  foreign  goods  and  brings  in  the 
foreign  producers  of  the  excluded  goods ;  the 
thorough  advertising  abroad  of  American  advan- 
tages by  boards  of  agriculture  and  railway  com- 
panies interested  in  building  up  communities ; 
and  a  fear  of  restrictive  legislation.  But  undoubt- 
edly, ever  back  of  all  other  reasons  is  the  convic- 
tion that  America  is  the  land  of  plenty  and  of 
liberty — a  word  which  each  interprets  according 
to  his  light  or  his  liking. 
The  Christian  Having  thus  considered  the  remarkable  propor- 
Attitude  tions  of  immigration,  and  the  causes  of  it,  it  will 
be  well  at  this  point  to  say  a  cautionary  word  as 
to  the  attitude  of  mind  and  heart  in  which  this 
subject  should  be  approached.  Impartiality  is 
necessary  but  difficult.  There  is  a  natural  preju- 
dice against  the  immigrant.  A  Christian  woman, 
of  ordinarily  gentle  and  sweet  temper,  was  heard 
to  say  recently,  while  this  very  subject  of  Chris- 
tian duty  to  the  immigrant  was  under  discussion 
at  a  missionary  conference:  "I  hate  these  dis- 
gusting foreigners ;  they  are  spoiling  our 
country."  Doubtless  many  would  sympathize 
with  her.  This  is  not  uncommon  prejudice  or 
feeling,  and  argument  against  it  is  of  little  avail. 
Nevertheless,  as  Christians  we  must  endeavor  to 
divest  ourselves  of  it.  We  must  recognize  the 
brotherhood  of  man  and  the  value  of  the  individ- 
ual soul  as  taught  by  Jesus.    It  may  aid  us,  per- 


The  Alien  Advance 


45 


haps,  if  we  remember  that  we  are  all — with  the 
exception  of  the  Indians,  who  may  lay  claim  to 
aboriginal  heritage — in  a  sense  descendants  of 
immigrants.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  essential  to 
draw  a  clear  distinction  between  colonists  and 
immigrants.  Colonization,  with  its  attendant  colonists  and 
hardships  and  heroisms,  steadily  advanced  from  immierants 
its  beginnings  in  New  England,  New  Amsterdam, 
and  Virginia,  until  there  resulted  the  founding 
of  a  free  and  independent  nation,  with  popular 
government  and  fixed  religious  principles,  includ- 
ing the  vital  ones  of  religious  liberty  and  the  right 
of  the  individual  conscience.  In  other  words, 
colonization  created  a  nation ;  and  there  had  to 
be  a  nation  before  there  could  be  immigration  to 
it.  "In  discussing  the  immigration  question," 
says  Mr.  Hall,  "this  distinction  is  important," 
for  it  does  not  follow  that,  because,  as  against 
the  native  Indians,  all  comers  might  be  con- 
sidered as  intruders  and  equally  without  claim 
of  right,  those  who  have  built  up  a  complicated 
framework  of  nationality  have  no  rights  as 
against  others  who  seek  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of 
national  life  without  having  contributed  to  its 
creation."^ 

It  ought  clearly  to  be  recognized  that  the  colonist  and 
colonists   and   their   descendants   have  sacred 

Rights 

rights,  civil  and  religious,  with  which  aliens 
should  not  be  permitted  to  interfere ;  and  that 

*  Prescott  F.  Hall,  Immigration,  3,  4. 


46 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Sympathetic 
and  Open 
Mind 


} 


The  Personal 
Responsibility 


these  rights  include  all  proper  and  necessary  leg- 
islation for  the  preservation  of  the  liberties,  laws, 
institutions,  and  principles  established  by  the 
founders  of  the  Republic  and  those  rights  of 
citizenship  guaranteed  under  the  constitution 
If  restriction  of  immigration  becomes  necessary 
in  order  to  safeguard  America,  the  American 
people  have  a  clear  right  to  pass  restrictive  or 
even  prohibitory  laws.  In  other  words,  America 
does  not  belong  equally  to  everybody.  The 
American  has  rights  which  the  alien  must  become 
American  to  acquire. 

At  the  same  time,  our  attitude  toward  the 
alien  should  be  sympathetic,  and  our  minds 
should  be  open  and  inquiring  as  we  study  the 
incoming  multitudes.  We  do  not  wish  to  raise 
the  Russian  cry,  "Russia  for  the  Russians,"  or 
the  Chinese  shibboleth,  "China  for  the  Chinese." 
The  Christian  spirit  has  been  compressed  into  the 
epigram,  "Not  America  for  Americans,  but 
Americans  for  America."  We  must  see  to  it 
that  the  immigrants  do  not  remain  aliens,  but 
are  transformed  into  Christian  Americans.  That 
is  the  true  missionary  end  for  which  we  are  to 
work;  and  it  is  in  order  that  we  may  w^ork 
intelligently  and  effectively  that  we  seek  to  famil- 
iarize ourselves  with  the  facts. 

The  facts  already  brought  out  are  surely  suf- 
ficient to  arrest  attention.  Suppose  this  million- 
a-year  rate  should  continue  for  a  decade — and 


The  Alien  Advance 


47 


there  is  every  reason  to  believe  it  -  will,  unless 
unusual  and  unlikely  restrictive  measures  are 
taken  by  our  government.  That  would  mean  ten 
millions  more  added,  and  probably  seventy  per 
cent,  of  them  from  southeastern  Europe.  Add 
the  natural  increase,  and  estimate  what  the 
result  of  these  millions  would  be  upon  the 
national  digestion.  Politically,  the  foreign  ele- 
ment would  naturally  and  inevitably  assume  the 
place  which  a  majority  can  claim  in  a  democracy, 
and  not  only  claim  but  maintain,  by  the  use  of 
votes — a  use  which  the  immigrant  learns  full 
soon  from  the  manipulators  of  parties.  Reli- 
giously, unless'  a  great  change  should  come  over 
the  spirit  of  American  Protestantism,  and  the 
work  of  evangelization  among  foreigners  be  con- 
ducted along  quite  different  lines  from  the  pres- 
ent, is  it  not  plain  that  our  country  would  cease 
to  be  Christian  America,  as  we  understand  the 
term?  There  is  enough  in  these  questions  to  set 
and  keep  the  patriotic  American  thinking. 

The  personal  inquiry  for  each  one  to  make  is, 
"As  an  American  and  a  Christian,  have  these 
facts  and  queries  any  special  message  for  me, 
and  have  I  any  direct  responsibility  in  relation 
to  them  ?" 


48  Aliens  or  Americans? 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  USING  THE  QUESTIONS 

These  questions  have  been  prepared  to  suggest  to  the 
leader  and  student  the  most  important  points  in  the 
chapter,  and  to  stimulate  further  meditation  and 
thought.  Those  marked  *  should  encourage  discussion. 
The  leader  is  not  expected  to  use  all  of  these  questions, 
and  should  use  his  judgment  in  eliminating  or  adding 
others  that  are  in  harmony  with  the  aim  of  the  lesson. 
For  helps  for  conducting  each  class  session,  the  leader 
should  not  fail  to  write  to  the  Secretary  of  his  Home 
Missionary  Board. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  I 

Aim  :    To  Realize  Our  Responsibility  in  Receiving 
One  Million  Aliens  a  Year 

I.  To  Learn  by  Comparison  the  Magnitude  of  a  Million 
Aliens. 

1.  At  what  rate  per  annum  is  our  population  now 
being  increased  by  immigration? 

2.  What  are  the  sources  of  this  invasion?  Its 
principal  gateway? 

3.  What  comparison  helps  you  most  to  realize  the 
number  of  immigrants? 

4.  What  are  some  of  the  largest  groups  in  the 
mass,  as  classified  by  nationality?  By  race? 
By  knowledge  or  ignorance?  By  fitness  for 
labor  ? 

5.  What  states  may  be  compared  with  last  year's 
arrivals  ? 

II.  To  Realize  the  Proportion  of  Our  Population  that 
has  I mmigrated  since  1820. 

6.  How  does  the  total  number  of  our  immigrants 
compare  with  the  population  of  Germany? 
England  ?  Canada  ? 


The  Alien  Advance 


49 


7.  Has  the  number  of  immigrants  been  increasing 
steadily?    Will  it  tend  to  increase? 

8.  Has  the  present  rate  been  long  continued? 
What  proportion  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  is  derived  from  immigration 
subsequent  to  the  American  Revolution  ? 

9.  *  Do  you  think  there  is  any  serious  menace 

in  such  large  numbers  of  immigrants?  Why? 

ni.    Why  do  Aliens  Come? 

10.  Name  the  principal  causes  of  immigration. 
The  principal  classes. 

11.  What  American  ideals  have  the  greatest  attrac- 
tive power?    What  opportunities? 

12.  Give  some  typical  instances  of  immigrants' 
stories.  *Would  you  have  wished  to  come 
under  the  same  circumstances  ? 

13.  What  other  forces  stimulate  immigration  to 
the  United  States?     What  agencies? 

IV.    What  Should  he  our  Attitude  toward  Aliens,  and 
What  is  our  Individual  Responsibility  for  Them? 

14.  *  What  is  the  Christian  attitude  toward  these 

newcomers?    How  can  we  remove  prejudice? 

15.  *  What  is  our  personal  responsibility  as  Chris- 

tians in  improving  the  condition  of  aliens? 

References  for  Advanced  Study. — Chapter  I 

I.  Compare  modern  immigration  with  the  migration 
of  peoples  in  earlier  times ;  for  example,  those 
of  the  Hebrews,  Aryans,  Goths,  Huns,  Saracens, 
and  other  races. 

Any  good  Encyclopedia  or  General  History. 


50 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


II.  What  resemblances  and  what  differences  between 
the  Colonial  settlement  of  America,  and  the  later 
immigration,  say,  during  the  Nineteenth  Century? 

III.  The  Causes  of  Immigration. 
Hall:  Immigration,  II. 

Lord,  et  al:  The  Italian  in  America,  III,  VIII. 
Warne:  The  Slav  Invasion,  III,  IV;  78,  83. 
Holt:  Undistinguished  Americans,  35,  244-250. 

IV.  What  agencies  can  you  name  and  describe  that 
are  trj-ing  to  receive  the  immigrants  in  a  humane 
and  Christian  spirit?  For  example,  the  United 
States  Government,  American  Tract  Society,  Xew 
York  Bible  Society,  Society  for  Italian  Immi- 
grants, and  other  organizations  and  agencies. 
Study  especially  any  that  work  in  your  own 
neighborhood. 


As  for  immigrants,  we  cannot  have 
too  many  of  the  right  kind,  and  we 
should  have  none  of  the  wrong  kind. 
I  will  go  as  far  as  any  in  regard  to 
restricting  undesirable  immigration.  I 
do  not  think  that  any  immigrant  who  will 
lower  the  standard  of  life  among  our 
people  should  be  admitted. — President 
Roosevelt. 


II 

ALIEN  ADMISSION  AND  RESTRICTION 


51 


Unrestricted  immigration  is  doing  much  to  cause 
deterioration  in  the  quality  of  American  citizenship. 
Let  us  resolve  that  America  shall  be  neither  a  hermit 
nation  nor  a  Botany  Bay.  Let  us  make  our  land  a  home 
for  the  oppressed  of  all  nations,  but  not  a  dumping- 
ground  for  the  criminals,  the  paupers,  the  cripples,  and 
the  illiterate  of  the  world.  Let  our  Republic,  in  its 
crowded  and  hazardous  future,  adopt  these  watch- 
words, to  be  made  good  all  along  our  oceanic  and  con- 
tinental borders :  "Welcome  for  the  worthy,  protection 
to  the  patriotic,  but  no  shelter  in  America  for  those 
who  would  destroy  the  American  shelter  itself." — Joseph 
Cook. 

It  is  not  the  migration  of  a  few  thousand  or  even 
million  human  beings  from  one  part  of  the  world  to 
another  nor  their  good  or  bad  fortune  that  is  of  interest 
to  us.  We  are  concerned  with  the  effect  of  such  a 
movement  on  the  community  at  large  and  its  growth  in 
civilization.  Immigration,  for  instance,  means  the  con- 
stant infusion  of  new  blood  into  the  American  common- 
wealth, and  the  question  is :  WTiat  effect  will  this  new 
blood  have  upon  the  character  of  the  community? — 
Professor  Mayo-Smith. 

It  is  advisable  to  study  the  influence  of  the  new- 
comers on  the  ethical  consciousness  of  the  communitj' — 
whether  there  is  a  gain  or  a  loss  to  us.  In  short,  we 
must  set  up  our  standard  of  what  we  desire  this  nation 
to  be,  and  then  consider  whether  the  policy  we  have 
hitherto  pursued  in  regard  to  immigration  is  calculated 
to  maintain  that  standard  or  to  endanger  it. — Idem. 


62 


II 


ALIEN  ADMISSION  AND  RESTRICTION 

/.    Method  of  Admission 

J-J  OW  do  immigrants  obtain  entrance  into  the  chief  Ports 

United  States  ?  New  York  is  the  chief  °^  ^"*''y 
port  of  entry,  and  if  we  learn  the  conditions 
and  methods  there  we  shall  know  them  in  gen- 
eral. The  great  proportion  coming  through 
New  York  is  seen  by  comparison  of  the  total 
admissions  for  1904  and  1905  at  the  larger  ports: 


Port 

1904 

190S 

New  York   

788,219 

Boston   

60,278 

65,107 

Baltimore   

•  •  •  •  55,940 

62,314 

Philadelphia   

....  19,467 

23,824 

Honolulu   

....  9,054 

11,997 

  9,036 

6,377 

Other  Ports   

24,447 

Through  Canada  ,  ,  ,  , 

•  • . .  30,374 

44,214 

The  proportion  for  New  York  is  not  far  from  The  Floating 
eight  tenths  of  the  whole.   Hence  it  is  true,  that  Gateway 
while  the  "dirty  little  ferryboat  John  G.  Carlisle  is 
not  an  imposing  object  to  the  material  eye,  to  the 
eye  of  the  imagination  she  is  a  spectacle  to  inspire 
awe,  for  she  is  the  floating  gateway  of  the 

63 


54  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Republic.  Over  her  dingy  decks  march  in  end- 
less succession  the  eager  battalions  of  Europe's 
peaceful  invaders  of  the  West.  That  single 
craft,  in  her  hourly  trips  from  Ellis  Island  to  the 
Battery,^  carries  more  immigrants  in  a  year  than 
came  over  in  all  tlie  fleets  of  the  nations  in  the 
two  centuries  after  John  Smith  landed  at  James- 
town. 

Human  Reading  about  the  arrivals  at  Ellis  Island,  no 
Reservoirs  ^natter  how  rcalistic  the  description,  will  not  give 
a  vivid  idea  of  what  immigration  means  nor  of 
what  sort  the  immigrants  are.  For  that,  you 
must  obtain  a  permit  from  the  authorities  and 
actually  see  for  yourself  the  human  stream  that 
pours  from  the  steerage  of  the  mighty  steamships 
into  the  huge  human  storage  reservoirs  of  Ellis 
Island.3  \Xe  know  that  however  perfect  the 
system,  human  nature  has  to  be  taken  into 
account,  both  in  officials  and  immigrants, 
and  human  nature  is  imperfect ;  much  of  it  at 

'The  park  and  piers  at  the  southern  end  of  New  York  City, 
formeriy  known  as  Castle  Garden. 

'Samuel  E.  Moffett,  Review  of  Reviews,  July,  1903. 

'It  is  good  to  know  that  the  reception  conditions,  so  far  as  the 
Government  is  concerned,  have  been  made  as  favorable  as  present 
accommodations  will  allow,  and  enlargement  is  already  projected. 
Since  the  Federal  Government  finally  took  charge  of  immigration 
in  1882,  great  improvement  has  been  made  in  method  and  adminis- 
tration. The  inspection  is  humane,  prompt,  and  on  the  whole 
kindly,  although  entrance  examinations  are  as  much  dreaded  by 
the  average  imminent  as  by  the  average  student.  Commissioner 
Watchom,  an  admirable  man  for  his  place,  insists  upon  kindness,  and 
want  of  it  in  an  employee  is  cause  for  dismissal.  Ellis  Island  aSords 
an  excellent  example  of  carefully  adjusted  details  and  thorough 
system,  whereby  with  least  possible  friction  thousands  of  aliens 
are  examined  in  a  day,  and  pronounced  fit  or  unfit  to  enter  the 
country-  The  process  is  too  rapid,  however,  to  give  each  case  the 
attention  which  the  best  interests  of  the  country  demand. 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  55 


Ellis  Island  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  deal 
patiently  with.  Hence,  from  the  very  nature  of 
things  and  men,  the  situation  is  one  to  develop 
pathos,  humor,  comedy,  and  tragedy,  as  the 
great  "human  sifting  machine"  works  away  at 
separating  the  wheat  from  the  chaff.  The 
tragedy  comes  in  the  case  of  the  excluded,  since 
the  blow  falls  sometimes  between  parents  and 
children,  husband  and  wife,  lover  and  sweetheart, 
and  the  decree  of  exclusion  is  as  bitter  as  death. 

To  make  the  manner  and  method  of  getting 
into  America  by  the  steerage  process  as  real  as 
possible,  try  to  put  yourself  in  an  alien's  place, 
and  see  what  you  would  have  to  go  through. 
Do  not  take  immigration  at  its  worst,  but  rather 
at  its  best,  or  at  least  above  the  average  condi- 
tions. Assume  that  you  belong  to  the  more  intel- 
ligent and  desirable  class,  finding  a  legitimate 
reason  for  leaving  your  home  in  Europe,  because 
of  hard  conditions  and  poor  outlook  there  and 
bright  visions  of  fortune  in  the  land  of  liberty, 
whither  relatives  have  preceded  you.  Your 
steamship  ticket  is  bought  in  your  native  town, 
and  }'ou  have  no  care  concerning  fare  or  bag- 
gage, A  number  of  people  of  your  race  and 
neighborhood  are  on  the  way,  so  that  you  are 
not  alone. 

Before  embarking  you  are  made  to  answer  a 
long  Hst  of  questions,  filling  out  your  "mani- 
fest," or  official  record  which  the  law  requires 


Make  Yourself 
an  Imaginary 
Immigrant 


The  Ship's 
Manifest 


56 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Numbered  and 
Lettered 


The  Voyage 


First  Exper- 
iences in  the 
New  World 


the  vessel-masters  to  obtain,  attest,  and  deliver 
to  the  government  officers  at  the  entrance  port.'^ 
Your  answers  proving  satisfactory  to  the  trans- 
portation agents,  a  card  is  furnished  you,  con- 
taining your  name,  the  letter  of  the  group  of 
thirty  to  which  you  are  assigned,  and  your  group 
number.  Thus  you  become,  for  the  time  being, 
No.  27  of  group  E.  You  are  cautioned  to  keep 
this  card  in  sight,  as  a  ready  means  of  identi- 
fication. 

Partings  over,  you  enter  upon  the  strange  and 
unforgetable  experiences  of  ten  days  or  more 
in  the  necessarily  cramped  quarters  of  the  steer- 
age— experiences  of  a  kind  that  do  not  invite 
repetition.  Homesickness  and  seasickness  form 
a  trying  combination,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
discomforts  of  a  mixed  company  and  enforced 
companionship. 

Your  first  American  experience  befalls  you 
when  the  steamship  anchors  at  quarantine  inside 

'Under  the  Act  of  1903,  this  manifest  has  to  state:  The  full  name, 
age  and  sex;  whether  married  or  single;  the  calling;  or  occupation; 
whether  able  to  read  or  write;  the  nationality;  the  race;  the  last 
residence;  the  seaport  landint;  in  the  United  States;  the  final  destina- 
tion, if  any,  beyond  the  port  of  landing;  whether  havins;  a  ticket 
through  to  ;uch  final  destination;  whether  the  alien  has  paid  his  own 
passage  or  whether  it  has  been  paid  by  any  other  person  or  by  any 
corporation,  society,  municipality,  or  government,  and  if  so,  by 
whom;  whether  in  possession  of  thirty  dollars,  and  if  less,  how  much; 
whether  goinq  to  join  a  relative  or  friend  and  if  so,  what  relative  or 
friend,  and  his  name  and  complete  address;  whether  ever  before 
in  the  United  States,  and  if  so.  when  and  where;  whether  ever  in 
prison  or  almshouse  or  an  institution  or  hospital  for  the  care  and 
treatment  of  the  insane  or  supported  by  charity;  whether  a  polyga- 
mist;  whether  an  anarchist;  whether  comin;;  by  reason  of  any  offer, 
solicitation,  promise,  or  acrreement.  expressed  or  implied,  to  perform 
labor  in  the  United  States,  and  what  is  the  alien's  condition  of  health, 
mental  and  physical,  and  whether  deformed  or  crippled,  and  if  so, 
for  how  long  and  fron^  "-hit  cause. 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  57 


Sandy  Hook,  and  the  United  States  inspec- 
tion officers  come  on  board  to  hunt  for  infectious 
or  contagious  diseases — cholera,  smallpox,  typhus 
fever,  yellow  fever,  or  plague.  No  outbreak  of 
any  of  these  has  marked  the  voyage,  fortunately 
for  you,  and  there  is  no  long  delay.  Slowly  the 
great  vessel  pushes  its  way  up  the  harbor  and  the 
North  River,  passing  the  statue  of  Liberty 
Enlightening  the  World,  that  beacon  which  all 
incomers  are  enjoined  to  see  as  the  symbol  of  the 
new  liberty  they  hope  to  enjoy.  — 

At  last  the  voyage  is  done,  your  steamship  lies  ship  Landing 
at  her  pier,  and  you  are  thrust  into  the  midst 
of  distractions.  Families  are  trying  to  keep 
together ;  the  din  is  indescribable ;  crying  babies 
add  to  the  general  confusion  of  tongues ;  all  sorts 
of  people  with  all  sorts  of  baggage  are  making 
ready  for  the  landing,  which  seems  a  long  time 
off  as  you  wait  for  the  customs  officers  to  get 
through  with  the  first-class  passengers.  At  last 
word  is  given  to  go  ashore,  and  the  procession  or 
pushing  movement  rather  begins.  You  are  hur- 
ried along,  up  a  companionway,  lugging  your 
hand  baggage ;  then  down  the  long  gangway  on 
to  the  pier  and  the  soil  of  America. 

It  is  not  a  pleasant  landing  in  the  land  of  light  Unnecessary 
and  liberty.    You  have  been  sworn  at,  pushed,  '-""'"y 
punched  with  a  stick  for  not  moving  faster 
when  you   could  not,   and  have   seen  others 
treated  much  more  roughly.  Just  in  front  of  you 


58  Aliens  or  Americans? 


a  poor  woman  is  trying  to  get  up  the  companion- 
way  with  a  child  in  one  arm,  a  deck  chair  on  the 
other,  and  a  large  bundle  besides.  She  blocks  the 
passage  for  an  instant.  A  great  burly  steward 
reaches  up,  drags  her  down,  tears  the  chair  off 
her  arm,  splitting  her  sleeve  and  scraping  the 
skin  off  her  wrist  as  he  does  so,  and  then  in  his 
rage  breaks  the  chair  to  pieces,  while  the  woman 
passes  on  sobbing,  not  daring  to  remonstrate.^ 
This  is  not  the  first  treatment  of  this  sort  you 
have  seen,  and  you  feel  powerless  to  help,  though 
your  blood  boils  at  the  outrage. 
Unpleasant      As  you  pass  dowu  the  gangwav  vour  number 

Beginnings    .         ,         ,  .  ,  1 '     •     1     1  1 

IS  taken  by  an  omcer  with  a  mechanical  checker, 
and  then  you  become  part  of  the  curious  crowd 
gathered  in  the  great  somber  building,  filled  with 
freight,  much  of  it  human.  Here  there  is  con- 
fusion worse  confounded,  as  separated  groups 
try  to  get  together  and  dock  watchmen  try  to 
keep  them  in  place.  Many  believe  their  baggage 
has  been  stolen,  and  mothers  are  sure  their  chil- 
dren have  been  kidnaped  or  lost.  The  dockmen 
are  violent,  not  hesitating  to  use  their  sticks,  and 
you  find  yourself  more  than  once  in  danger, 
although  you  strive  to  obey  orders  you  do  not 
understand  very  well,  since  they  are  shouted  out 
in  savage  manner.  The  inspector  reaches  you 
finally,  and  you  are  hustled  along  in  a  throng  to 
the  barge  that  is  waiting.    You  are  tired  and 

'Broughton  Brandenburg,  Imported  Americans,  208. 


Keceivixg  Room  at  Ellis  Island 

(A)  Entrance  stairs;  (B)  Examination  of  health  ticket;  (C)  Surgeon's  ex- 
amination;  (D)  Second  surgeon's  examination:  (E)  Group  compart- 
ments; (F)  Waiting  for  inspection;  (G)  Passage  to  the  stairway; 
(H)  Detention   room;    (I)  The  Inspectors'  desks;  (K)  Out- 
ward passage  to  barge,  ferry,  or  detention  room. 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  59 


hungry,  having  had  no  food  since  early  break- 
fast. Your  dreams  of  America  seem  far  from 
reality  just  now.  You  are  almost  too  weary  to 
care  what  next. 

The  next  is  Ellis  Island,  whose  great  building  America's 

...  r    1      i  Gateway 

looks  mvitmg.  Out  of  the  barge  you  are  swept 
with  the  crowd,  baggage  in  hand  or  on  head  or 
shoulder,  and  on  to  the  grand  entrance.  As  you 
ascend  the  broad  stairs,  an  officer  familiar  with 
many  languages  is  shouting  out,  first  in  one 
tongue  and  then  another,  "Get  your  health  tickets 
ready."  You  notice  that  the  only  available  place 
many  have  in  which  to  carry  these  tickets  is  in 
their  mouths,  since  their  hands  are  full  of  chil- 
dren or  baggage. 

At  the  head  of  the  long  pair  of  stairs  you  Medical 
meet  a  uniformed  officer  (a  doctor  in  the  Marine  ^°^p^'=*'°° 
Hospital  Service),  who  takes  your  ticket,  glances 
at  it,  and  stamps  it  with  the  Ellis  Island  stamp. 
Counting  the  quarantine  officer  as  number  one, 
you  have  now  passed  officer  number  two.  At  the 
head  of  the  stairs  you  find  yourself  in  a  great 
hall,  divided  into  two  equal  parts,  each  part  filled 
with  curious  railed-off  compartments.  Directed 
by  an  officer,  you  are  turned  into  a  narrow  alley- 
way, and  here  you  meet  officer  number  three,  in 
uniform  like  the  second.  The  keen  eyes  of  this 
doctor  sweep  you  at  a  glance,  from  feet  to  head. 
You  do  not  know  it,  but  this  is  the  first  medical 
inspection  by  a  surgeon  of  the  Marine  Hospital 


6o 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Service,  and  it  causes  a  halt,  although  only  for  a 
moment.  When  the  person  immediately  in  front 
of  you  reaches  this  doctor,  you  see  that  he  pushes 
back  the  shawl  worn  over  her  head,  gives  a  nod, 
and  puts  a  chalk  mark  upon  her.  He  is  on  the 
keen  lookout  for  favus  (contagious  skin  disease), 
and  for  signs  of  disease  or  deformity.  The  old 
man  who  limps  along  a  little  way  behind  you  has 
a  chalk  mark  put  on  his  coat  lapel,  and  you  won- 
der why  they  do  not  chalk  you. 

You  are  now  about  ten  or  fifteen  feet  behind 
your  front  neighbor,  and  as  you  are  motioned 
to  follow,  about  thirty  feet  further  on  you  con- 
front another  uniformed  surgeon  (officer  number 
four),  who  has  a  towel  hanging  beside  him,  a 
small  instrument  in  his  hand,  and  a  basin  of  dis- 
infectants behind  him.  You  have  little  time  for 
wonder  or  dread.  With  a  deft  motion  he  applies 
the  instrument  to  your  eye  and  turns  up  the  lid, 
quickly  shutting  it  down  again,  then  repeats  the 
operation  upon  the  other  eye.  He  is  looking  for 
the  dreaded  contagious  trachoma  or  for  purulent 
ophthalmia ;  also  for  disease  of  any  kind,  or  any 
defect  that  would  make  it  lawful  and  wise  to  send 
you  back  whence  you  came.  You  have  now 
been  twice  examined,  and  passed  as  to  soundness 
of  body,  freedom  from  lameness  or  defect,  gen- 
eral healthfulness,  and  absence  of  eye  disease  or 
pulmonary  weakness. 

As  you  move  along  to  the  inclosed  space  of 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction 


6i 


your  group  E,  you  note  that  the  lame  man  and 
the  woman  who  were  chalk-marked  are  sent  into 
another  railed-off  space,  known  as  the  "detention 
pen,"  where  they  must  await  a  more  rigid  med- 
ical examination.  One  other  inspector  you  have 
faced — a  woman,  whose  sharp  eyes  seem  to  read 
the  characters  of  the  women  as  they  come  up  to 
her  "wicket  gate ;"  for  it  is  her  duty  to  stop  the 
suspicious  and  immoral  characters  and  send  them 
to  the  detention  rooms  or  special  inquiry  boards. 
Thus  you  have  passed  five  government  officers 
since  landing  on  the  Island.  They  have  been 
courteous  and  kindly,  but  impress  you  as  know- 
ing their  business  so  well  that  they  can  readily 
see  through  fraud  and  deception. 

The  entrance  ordeal  is  not  quite  over,  but  for 
a  little  while  you  rest  on  the  wooden  bench  in 
your  E  compartment,  waiting  until  the  group  is 
assembled,  all  save  those  sent  away  for  deten- 
tion. Suddenly  you  are  told  to  come  on,  and  in 
single  file  E  group  marches  along  the  narrow 
railed  alley  that  leads  to  officer  number  six,  or 
the  inspector  who  holds  E  sheet  in  his  hand. 
When  it  comes  your  turn,  your  manifest  is  pro- 
duced and  you  are  asked  a  lot  of  questions.  A 
combined  interpreter  and  registry  clerk  is  at  hand 
to  assist.  The  interpreter  pleases  you  greatly  by 
speaking  in  your  own  language,  which  he  rightly 
guesses,  and  notes  whether  your  answers  agree 
with  those  on  the  manifest. 


Detention 
Room 


The  Wicket 
Gate 


Entrance 
Examination 


62  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Stairs  of 
Separation 


The  Ticket  As  vou  havc  the  good  fortune  to  be  honest, 
System  havc  Sufficient  money  to  escape  being  halted 

as  likely  to  become  a  public  charge,  you  are 
ticketed  "O.  K."  with  an  "R"  which  means  that 
you  are  bound  for  a  railroad  station.  You  see 
a  ticket  "S.  I."  on  the  lame  man,  which  means 
that  he  is  to  go  to  a  Board  of  Special  Inquiry, 
with  the  chances  of  being  debarred,  or  sent  back 
home.  On  another,  as  you  pass,  you  notice  a 
ticket  "L.  P.  C,"  which  signifies  the  dreaded 
decision,  "liable  to  become  public  charge" — a 
decision  that  means  deportation. 
The  Three  All  this  time  you  have  been  guided.  Now  you 
are  directed  to  a  desk  where  your  railroad  ticket- 
order  is  stamped ;  next  to  a  banker's  desk,  where 
your  money  is  exchanged  for  American  money; 
and  finally  }'Ou  are  motioned  to  the  right  stairway 
of  three,  this  leading  to  the  railroad  barge  room. 
Here  your  baggage  is  checked  and  your  ticket 
provided,  a  bag  of  food  is  offered  you,  and  then 
you  are  taken  on  board  a  barge  which  will  convey 
you  to  the  railroad  station.  You  have  left  your 
fellow-vo3'agers  abruptly,  all  save  the  railroad- 
ticketed  like  yourself.  Had  you  been  destined 
for  New  York,  you  would  have  gone  down  the 
left  stairway  and  been  free  to  take  the  ferry- 
boat for  the  Battery.  If  you  had  expected 
friends  to  meet  you,  the  central  stairway  would 
have  led  you  to  the  waiting  room  for  that  pur- 
pose.   Those  three  stairways  are  called  "The 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  63 


Stairs  of  Separation,"  and  there  families  are 
sometimes  ruthlessly  separated  without  warning, 
when  bound  for  different  destinations. 

The  officers,  who  have  treated  you  courteously,  Carefui 
in  strong  contrast  to  the  steamship  and  dock  ^"p""' 
employees,  keep  track  of  you  until  you  are  safely 
on  board  an  immigrant  car,  bound  for  the  place 
where  your  relatives  are.  Your  ideas  of  great 
New  York  are  limited,  but  you  have  been  saved 
by  this  official  supervision  from  being  swindled 
by  sharpers  or  enticed  into  evil.  You  are  practi- 
cally in  charge  of  the  railway  company,  as  you 
have  been  of  the  steamship  company,  until  you 
are  deposited  at  the  station  where  you  expect  to 
make  your  home.  You  are  ready  to  believe,  by 
this  time,  that  America  is  at  least  a  spacious 
country,  with  room  enough  in  it  for  all  who  want 
to  come.  At  the  same  time  you  will  admit,  as 
you  recall  some  of  your  fellow-passengers  in  the 
steerage,  that  there  should  not  be  room  in  the 
country  for  those  who  ought  not  to  come — not 
only  the  diseased  and  insane,  crippled  and  con- 
sumptive, who  are  shut  out  by  the  law,  but  also 
the  delinquent  and  depraved,  whose  presence 
means  added  ignorance  and  crime.  You  only 
wish  the  inspectors  could  have  seen  some  of  those 
shameless  men  on  shipboard,  so  that  in  spite  of 
their  smooth  answers  they  might  have  been  sent 
back  whence  they  came,  to  prey  upon  the  inno- 
cent there  instead,  of  here.    Now  that  it  is  all 


64 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


over,  you  shudder  for  a  long  time  at  night  as 
memory   recalls   the   steerage  scenes,  through 
which  your  faith  in  God  and  your  constant 
\^prayers  preserved  you.^ 
The  Alien's      In  such  manner  the  alien  gains  his  chance 
Chance  bccomc  an  American.    What  he  will  make 

of  that  chance  is  a  matter  of  grave  importance  to 
the  land  that  has  opened  to  him  the  doors  of 
opportunity  and  liberty.  Having  seen  how  the 
immigrants  get  into  the  United  States,  let  us  now 
see  how  they  are  kept  out.  When  we  know  what 
the  restrictive  laws  are,  and  how  they  are 
enforced  or  evaded,  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to 
judge  as  to  their  sufficiency,  and  the  need  of 
further  legislation. 

//.    Governmental  Regnlation 

Evasion  The  United  States  has  some  excellent  immi- 

and  Violation  gration  laws,  the  best  and  most  extensive  of  any 
nation,  as  one  would  expect,  since  this  is  the 
nation  to  which  nearly  all  immigrants  come. 
The  trouble  is  that  every  attempt  is  made  to 
evade  these  laws,  and  where  they  cannot  be 
evaded  they  are  violated.    The  laws  are  of  two 

'This  imaginary  sketch  adheres  in  every  detail  to  the  facts.  The 
medical  examiners  and  inspectors  becoine  exceedingly  expert  in  de- 
tecting disease,  disability,  or  deception.  If  an  overcoat  is  carried  over 
the  shoulder,  they  look  for  a  false  or  stiff  arni.  The  gait  and  general 
appearance  indicate  health  o'  want  of  it  to  them,  and  all  who 
do  not  appear  normal  are  turned  aside  for  further  examination, 
■which  is  thorough.  The  women  have  a  special  inspection  by  the 
matrons,  who  have  to  be  both  exoert  and  alert  to  detect  and  reject 
the  unworthy.  The  chief  difficulty  hes  in  too  small  a  force  to 
handle  such  large  numl-f-r;  "  hich  have  reached  as  high  as  4S.ooc 
in  five  days. 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  65 


classes:  i.  Protective,  in  favor  of  the  immigrant; 
and  2  Restrictive,  in  favor  of  the  country. 

There  is  a  law  against  overcrowding  on  ship-  Protection  for 
board,  going  back  as  far  as  1819,  but  overcrowd-  immigrant 
ing  has  gone  on  ever  since. ^  There  seems  to  be 
no  doubt  that  even  on  the  best  steamships  of  the 
best  lines  there  is  ready  disregard  of  the  law 
when  it  interferes  with  the  profits  to  be  made 
out  of  the  steerage.  Strong  evidence  to  this 
effect  is  given  by  Mr.  Brandenburg.  Here  is  a 
condensed  leaf  from  his  own  experience  which 
shows  how  much  regard  is  paid  to  the  comfort 
and  health  of  the  steerage  passengers  :^ 

"In  a  compartment  from  nine  to  ten  feet  high  steerage, 
and  having  a  space  no  larger  than  six  ordinary 
rooms,  were  beds  for  195  persons,  and  214 
women  and  children  occupied  them.  The  ven- 
tilation was  merely  what  was  to  be  had  from  the 
companionway  that  opened  into  the  alleyway 
and  not  on  the  deck,  the  few  ports  in  the  ship's 
sides,  and  the  scanty  ventilating  shafts.  The 
beds  were  double-tiered  affairs  in  blocks  of  from 
ten  to  twenty,  constructed  of  iron  framework, 
with  iron  slats  in  checker  fashion  to  support 
the  burlap-covered  bag  of  straw,  grass,  or  waste 
which  served  as  a  mattress.    Pillows  there  were 

'The  present  regulations  were  passed  in  1882,  and  if  lived  up  to, 
as  by  trustworthy  testimony  they  are  not.  would  prevent  serious 
overcrowding,  although  the  conditions  as  to  air,  sanitation,  and 
morals  would  still  be  most  unsatisfactory.  For  protective  laws,, 
see  Appendix  B. 

'Broughton  Brandenburg,  Imported  Americans,  chap.  XIV. 


66 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


none,  only  cork  jacket  life-preservers  stuck  under 
one  end  of  the  mattress  to  give  the  elevation  of  a 
pillow.  One  blanket  sen  ed  the  purpose  of  all 
bedclothing;  it  was  a  mixture  of  wool,  cotton, 
and  jute,  predominantly  jute ;  the  length  of  a 
man's  body  and  a  yard  and  a  half  wide.  For 
such  quarters  and  accommodations  the  emigrant 
pays  half  the  sum  that  would  buy  a  first-class 
passage.  A  comparison  of  the  two  classes  shows 
where  the  steamship  company  makes  the  most 
money. 

Feeding  Like  "Enrolled  in  the  blanket  each  person  found  a 
Animals  fork,  spoon,  pint  tin  cup,  and  a  flaring  six-inch- 
wide,  two-inch-deep  pan  out  of  which  to  eat. 
The  passengers  were  instructed  to  form  groups 
of  six  and  choose  a  mess-manager,  who  was 
supposed  to  take  the  big  pan  and  bucket,  get  the 
dinner  and  drinkables,  and  distribute  the  portions 
to  his  group.  After  the  meal,  some  member  was 
supposed  to  collect  the  tin  utensils  and  wash 
them  ready  for  next  time.  But  the  crowd  in  the 
wash-room  was  so  great  that  about  one  third 
of  the  people  chose  to  rinse  off  the  things  with  a 
dash  of  drinking  water,  others  never  washed  their 
cups  and  pans.  Yet  the  emigrant  pays  half  the 
first-cabin  rate  for  fighting  for  his  food,  serving 
it  himself,  and  washing  his  own  dishes.  The 
food  was  in  its  quality  good,  but  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  messed  into  one  heap  in  the  big 
pan  was  nothing  short  of  nauseating.   After  the 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  67 


first  meal  the  emigrants  began  throwing  the 
refuse  on  the  deck  instead  of  over  the  side  or 
into  the  scuppers.  The  result  can  be  imagined. 
It  was  an  extremel}^  hot  night,  and  the  air  in  the 
crowded  compartment  was  so  foul  I  could  not 
sleep.  The  men  and  boys  about  me  lay  for  the 
most  part  like  logs,  hats,  coats,  and  shoes  off, 
and  no  more,  sleeping  the  sleep  of  the  tired. 

"My  wife  said  the  babies  in  her  compartment  Remedy 
were  crying  in  relays  of  six,  the  women  had  Proposed 
scattered  bits  of  macaroni,  meat,  and  potatoes 
all  over  the  beds  and  on  the  floor,  and  added 
dishwater  as  a  final  discomfort.  Two  thirds  of 
the  emigrants  were  as  clean  as  circumstances 
would  permit,  but  the  other  third  kept  all  in  a 
reign  of  uncleanliness.  The  worst  could  not  be 
put  into  print.  The  remedy  for  the  whole  mat- 
ter is  to  pack  fewer  people  in  the  same  ship's 
space,  and  a  regular  service  at  tables.  The  big 
emigrant-carriers  should  be  forced  to  give  up 
a  part  of  their  enormous  profits  in  order  that 
sanitary  conditions  at  least  may  prevail." 

This  certainly  is  not  an  unreasonable  demand,  Laws  Rigidly 
and  proper  laws  with  regard  to  the  steerage  "  ""^^ 
rigidly  enforced  would  tend  to  discourage  immi- 
gration, instead  of  the  reverse,  since  the  rates 
would  doubtless  be  raised  as  the  numbers  were 
lowered.  Cruel  treatment  of  the  helpless  aliens 
by  the  stewards  and  ship's  officers  should  be 
stopped.    Mr  Brandenburg's  description,  which 


68  Aliens  or  Americans? 

by  no  means  tells  the  whole  story  of  steerage 
horrors,  should  serve  to  institute  reform  through 
the  creation  of  a  public  sentiment  that  will 
■Steerage   demand  it.   There  is  no  other  way  to  reach  such. 

Reforms  .  ,  ,  .         ,  , 

Needed  conditions ;  and  here  is  where  the  young  people 
can  exert  their  influence  powerfully  for  good. 
Money  greed  should  not  be  allowed  to  make  the 
steerage  a  disgrace  to  Christian  civilization  and 
an  offense  to  comm.on  decency.  Of  course  it  is 
difficult  to  detect  what  goes  on  in  the  hold  of  a 
great  steamship,  and  when  immigrants  make 
complaint  they  frequently  sufifer  for  it.  It  is 
possible,  however,  to  provide  government  inspec- 
tors, and  inspectors  who  will  inspect  and  remain 
proof  against  bribes.  The  one  essential  is  a 
sufficiently  strong  and  insistent  public  opinion. 

///.    Putting  up  the  Bars 

The  need  of  some  regulation  and  restriction 
of  immigration  was  felt  early  in  our  national  life. 
The  fathers  of  the  Republic  did  not  agree  about 
the  matter,  and  in  this  their  descendants  have 
been  like  them.  Washington  questioned  the  advis- 
ability of  letting  any  more  imimigrants  come, 
except  those  belonging  to  certain  skilled  trades 
that  were  needed  to  develop  the  new  country. 
IMadison  favored  a  policy  of  liberality  and 
inducement,  so  that  population  might  increase 
more  rapidly.  Jefferson,  on  the  other  hand, 
wished  "there  were  an  ocean  of  fire  between  this 


Protection  for 
the  Country 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  69 


country  and  Europe,  so  that  it  might  be  impos- 
sible for  any  more  immigrants  to  come  hither." 
We  can  only  conjecture  what  his  thoughts  would 
be  if  he  were  to  return  and  study  present  condi- 
tions. Franklin,  certainly  one  of  the  wisest  and 
most  far-seeing  of  the  earlier  statesmen,  feared 
that  immigration  would  tend  to  destroy  the 
homogeneity  essential  to  a  democracy  with  ideals. 
Equally  great  and  good  men  in  our  history  have 
taken  one  or  the  other  side  of  this  question,  from 
the  extreme  of  open  gates  to  that  of  prohibition, 
while  the  people  generally  have  gone  on  about 
their  business  with  the  comfortable  feeling  that 
matters  come  out  pretty  well  if  they  are  not  too 
much  interfered  with. 

While  statesmen  were  theorizing  and  dif¥ering,  y^^^^  gj^j^ 
conditions  made  the  need  of  some  actual  regula-  Law  in  1834 
tions  and  restrictions  felt  as  early  as  1824, 
although  the  total  immigration  of  that  year  was 
only  7,912,  or  less  than  that  of  a  single  day  at 
present.    The  first  law  resulted  from  abuse  of  ) 
free  admission.    It  was  found  that  some  foreign  / 
governments    were    shipping    their    paupers,  / 
diseased  persons,  and  criminals  to  America  as  the  1 
easiest  and  most  economical  way  to  get  rid  of  \ 
them.   This  it  undoubtedly  was  for  them  ;  but  the  \ 
people  of  New  York  did  not  see  where  the  ease  ' 
and  economy  came   in   on  their  side  of  the 
ledger,  and  in  self-defense,  therefore,  the  state 
passed  the  first  law,  with  intent  to  shut  out  unde- 


7©  Aliens  or  Americans? 


sirables.^  This  state  legislation  was  the  genesis 
of  national  enactment.  The  history  of  federal 
laws  concerning  aliens  is  covered  compactly  by 
Mr.  Hall,  and  those  interested  in  the  details  of 
this  important  phase  of  the  subject  are  re- 
ferred to  his  book.2  A  comprehensive  table, 
by  means  of  which  all  the  significant  legisla- 
tion can  be  seen  at  a  glance,  will  be  found  in 
Appendix  B. 

Government      In  1882  there  Came  a  tremendous  wave  of 
Control        immigration,  with  effects  upon  the  labor  market 
that  largely  induced  the  passage  in  that  year  of 
the  first  general  immigration  law.    The  Federal 
1    Government  now  assumed  entire  control  of  the 
ports  of  entry,  as  it  was  manifestly  essential  to 
have  a  national  policy  and  supervision.  Since 
j     1862,  when  the  Chinese  coolies  were  excluded, 
under  popular  pressure.  Congress  has  passed 
eight  Acts  of  more  or  less  importance,  culminat- 
ing in  the  Act  of  1903,2  wdiich  is  said  by  Mr. 
1     Whelpley,  who  has  collected  all  the  immigration 
laws  of  all  countries,  and  is  therefore  competent 

^This  Act  of  1824  required  of  vessel -masters  a  report  giving  name, 
birthplace,  age,  and  occupation  of  each  immigrant,  and  a  bond  to 
secure  the  city  against  public  charges. 

^Immigration,  chap.  X. 

^The  main  provisions  are;  i.  Head  tax  of  $2.  2.  Excluded 
classes  numbering  17-  3-  Criminal  oflfenses  against  the  Immigra- 
tion Acts,  enumerating  1 2  crimes.  4  Rejection  of  the  diseased 
aliens.  S-  Manifest,  required  of  vessel-masters,  with  answers  to 
It)  questions.  6.  Examination  of  immigrants.  7.  Detention  and 
return  of  aliens.  8.  Bonds  and  guaranties.  The  la%v  may  be 
found  in  full  in  the  Appendix  to  Immigration,  and  in  The  Problem  of 
tlie  Immigrant,  chap.  VI.,  where  the  rules  and  regulations  for 
its  enforcement  are  also  given.  A  list  of  the  excluded  classes  and 
criminal  offenses  will  be  found  in  Appendix  B  of  this  volume. 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  71 


to  judge,  to  be  "up  to  the  present  time  the  most 
far-reaching  measure  of  its  kind  in  force  in  any- 
country;  and  the  principles  underlying  it  must 
serve  as  the  foundation  for  all  immigration 
restriction."  Under  this  law  we  have  practically 
unrestricted  immigration,  with  the  important 
exceptions  that  the  Chinese  laborers  are  not 
admitted,  and  that  persons  suffering  from 
obvious  contagious  diseases,  insane  persons, 
known  anarchists  and  criminals,  and  a  certain 
small  percentage  likely  to  become  public  charges  \ 
are  debarred.  The  law  does  not  fix  a  property, 
income,  or  educational  qualification,  does  not 
insist  upon  a  knowledge  of  a  trade,  nor  impose 
a  tax.  In  other  words,  we  have  at  present  a 
more  or  less  effective  police  regulation  of  immi- 
gration,  but  we  are  not  pursuing  a  policy  of 
restriction  or  limitation. 

As  to  the  Chinese,  we  have  made  an  excep-  un-American 
tion,  and  one  that  fails  to  commend  itself  to  Discriminatioo 
many.    Grant  that  there  is  much  to  be  said  in 
favor  of  the  proper  restriction  of  Chinese  immi- 
gration, especially  on  the  ground  that  the  immi- 
grants would  come  only  to  earn  money  and 
return  home,  not  to  become  Americans ;  that 
there  can  be  no  race  assimilation  between  Chinese 
and  Americans;  and  that  such  bird-of-passage  / 
cheap  male  labor  is  a  detriment  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  country.   All  the  force  in  these  argu- 
ments applies  equally  to  a  large  proportion  of  / 


72  Aliens  or  Americans? 


the  immigration  from  southeastern  Europe  which 
is  admitted.  The  laws  should  be  uniform.  The 
right  to  shut  out  the  Chinese  coolies  is  not  ques- 
tioned ;  but  if  these  be  debarred,  why  not  debar 
the  illiterate  and  unskilled  laboring  class  that 
comes  from  Ireland,  Italy,  and  Austria-Hungary  ? 
The  Chinese  certainly  can  fill  a  place  in  our 
industries  which  the  other  races  do  not  fill  equally 
well.  Their  presence  in  the  kitchen  would  tend 
to  alleviate  domestic  conditions  that  are  respon- 
sible in  large  measure  for  the  breaking  up  of 
American  home  life.  It  is  a  ludicrous  error  to 
suppose  that  all  the  Chinese  who  come  to 
America  are  laundrymen  at  home.  Let  Mrs.  S.  L. 
Baldwin,  a  returned  missionary  who  labored  in 
China  for  eighteen  years  and  knows  the  people 
she  pleads  for,  bear  her  witness : 
A  Mission-  "The  Chinese  are  exactly  the  same  class  as 
ary's  Plea  for  immigrants  from  other  lands.    The  needy 

the  Chinese  .  7      r  ■  11 

poor,  With  few  exceptions,  must  ever  be  the 
immigrant  class.  Those  who  come  to  us  across 
the  Pacific  are  largely  from  the  respectable  farm- 
ing class,  who  fall  into  laundry  work,  shoe- 
making,  etc.,  because  these  branches  of  industry 
are  chiefly  open  to  them.  I  have  no  fear  of  the 
Chinese  immigrants  suffering  in  comparison 
with  those  who  come  across  the  Atlantic.  It  is 
not  the  Chinaman  who  is  too  lazy  to  work,  and 
goes  to  the  almshouse  or  jail.  It  is  not  he  who 
reels  through  our  streets,  defies  our  Sabbath  laws. 


I 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  73 


deluges  our  country  with  beer,  and  opposes  all 
work  for  temperance  and  the  salvation  of  our 
sons  from  the  liquor  curse.  It  is  not  the  man 
from  across  the  Pacific  who  commits  the  fear- 
ful crimes,  and  who  is  longing  to  put  his  hand 
to  our  political  wheel  and  rule  the  United 
States.  There  are  no  healthier  immigrants 
coming  to  this  countr}^  It  is  with  difficulty, 
and  only  under  pressure  of  necessity  they  are 
induced  to  leave  China,  so  that  the  bugbear 
of  millions  of  coolies  overrunning  America  is 
absurd." 

Workers  in  the  Chinese  missions  and  Sunday-  £^!'^°r 

Fair  Play 

schools  in  this  country  will  assent  to  Mrs.  Bald- 
win's words.  And  Americans  will  appreciate 
her  sense  of  the  ludicrous  when  an  Irish  washer- 
woman in  San  Francisco,  indignant  that  a 
Chinese  servant  had  been  brought  to  America 
by  the  missionary,  said  to  her,  "We  have  a  right 
here  and  they  haven't."  As  for  the  Chinese,  the 
time  will  come  when  the  injustice  of  discrimi- 
nating against  a  single  nation  will  be  recognized 
and  the  wrong  be  righted.  There  are  no  more 
stable  converts  to  Christianity,  no  more  generous 
givers  and  zealous  missionaries,  than  the  Chinese 
converts.  Let  us  have  American  fair  play,  about 
which  President  Roosevelt  says  so  much,  in  our 
treatment  of  them.  Recent  developments  prove 
that  the  United  States  is  unwilling  to  imperil  the 
relations  of  friendship  which  have  existed  with 
China. 


74  Aliens  or  Americans? 


IV.    Excluding  the  Unfit 

Intelligence  At  EIHs  Island  one  may  see  what  is  aptly 
of  Inspectors  termed  "the  tragedy  of  the  excluded."i  The 
enforcement  of  the  laws  comes  into  operation  at 
the  ports  of  entry.  Practically  everything 
depends  upon  the  intelligence  and  faithfulness 
of  the  inspectors,  who  are  charged  with  grave 
responsibility.  Immigrant  and  country  are 
equally  at  their  mercy.  Necessarily  a  large 
margin  must  be  left  to  their  judgment  when  it 
comes  to  the  question,  Will  the  applicant  now 
before  me  probably  become  a  public  charge — 
that  is,  fall  into  the  pauper  or  criminal  class —  . 
or  is  he  of  the  right  stuff  to  make  a  respectable 
and  desirable  American  citizen?  In  cases  of 
plain  insanity  or  idiocy  or  disease  the  decision 
is  easy;  but  when  it  comes  to  the  moral  and 
economic  sphere  an  expert  opinion  is  required. 
Trickeries  Tlieii,  the  iuspcctors  havc  to  be  constantly  on 
Attempted  t}^g  lookout  for  dcccption  and  fraud.  Immigrants 
who  belong  to  the  excluded  classes  have  been 
carefully  coached  by  agents  interested  in  getting 
them  through  the  examination.  Diseased  eyes 
have  been  doctored  up  for  the  occasion;  lame 
persons  have  been  trained  to  avoid  the  fatal  limp 
during  that  walk  between  the  two  surgeons.  Lies 
have  been  put  into  innocent  mouths  and  the 
beginnings  of  falsehood  into  the  heart.  Mr. 
Adams  gives  this  instance  showing  how  the 

'Joseph  H.  Adams,  in  Home  Missionary,  for  April,  1905. 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  75 


mind  of  the  inspector  works.  The  line  is 
passing  steadily,  ceaselessly.  A  flashily  dressed 
French  girl  has  plenty  of  money  but  unsatis- 
factory references  and  destination,  and  back  she 
is  turned. 

"Next  comes  a  bookkeeper,  so  he  says.  His  Discretion 
father  gave  him  money  and  he  was  coming  here 
to  make  his  fortune.  The  inspector  is  not  satis- 
fied and  he  is  turned  over  to  the  'S.  I.'  Board. 
But  his  papers,  money,  and  statements  are  clear 
and  he  is  admitted ;  they  give  him  the  benefit  of 
the  doubt  as  they  always  do.  But  next  in  line 
comes  a  well  built  stocky  Pole,  with  nothing  in 
the  world  but  a  carpet  bag,  a  few  bundles,  and 
a  small  showing  of  money.  Ambition  is  written 
all  over  his  face  and  he  is  admitted.  'Now,'  says 
the  recorder,  pausing  for  a  moment,  'see  the 
difference  between  these  two  gents.  The  first 
duffer  will  look  around  for  a  job,  spend  time 
and  money  to  get  something  to  suit  him,  and  keep 
his  job  for  a  short  time;  then  he  will  give  it  up, 
run  through  his  money,  borrow  from  his  friends, 
and  then  give  them  all  the  cold  hand.  He  won't 
wear  well,  and  his  dad  knew  it  when  he  sent  him 
over,  but  he  was  glad  to  get  rid  of  him.  So  lots 
of  them  are.  Now  look  at  the  difference  between  picking  the 
him  and  that  Pole.  He  knows  nothing  but  work,  winning  Man 
Look  at  his  eyes,  mild  but  good.  He  has  been 
brought  up  next  to  mother  earth ;  turn  him  loose 
from  the  train  when  he  reaches  his  destination 


76  Aliens  or  Americans? 


and  he  will  dig.  He  won't  hang  around  looking 
for  a  job,  but  he  will  till  the  soil  and  before  you 
or  I  know  it  he  will  have  crops  and  that  is  what 
he  will  live  on.  He  comes  from  a  hard  country, 
is  tough,  and  when  you  and  I  are  going  around 
shivering  in  an  overcoat,  he  will  be  going  around 
in  his  shirt  sleeves.  That  is  the  stuff  we  want 
here,  not  the  first  kind,  with  flabby  hands  and 
sapped  vitality.'  Sure  enough  the  bookkeeper 
did  not  wear  well,  and  falling  into  the  hands  of 
the  police,  some  months  later,  he  was  deported 
under  the  three-year  limitation  law,  and  the 
country  was  better  for  it." 
Wise  The  inspectors  are  wise  in  showing  partiality 

Partiality,  and  (-q  the  men  who  havc  plenty  of  davs'  work  in 

Work  Praised  . ,    ,        ,  ,  '  t  . 

them,  even  if  they  have  less  money.  It  is  not  at 
all  safe  to  judge  the  immigrants  as  desirable  or 
otherwise  according  to  the  amount  of  money  per 
capita  they  bring.  It  is  the  head  and  not  the  head- 
money  that  should  be  looked  at.  Think  of  the 
responsibility.  i\Iore  than  300,000  women  passed 
through  the  "moral  wicket"  at  Ellis  Island  last 
year.  Of  course  many  of  bad  quality,  men  and 
women  both,  get  through,  for  inspectors  on  too 
meager  salaries  are  not  omniscient,  but  a  good 
word  should  be  said  for  these  public  servants, 
who  in  the  main  are  conscientiously  performing 
a  delicate  and  difficult  task.^    Let  us  see  some 

*The  Immisrration  Bureau  has  1,214  inspectors  and  special 
agents.  The  Commissioner-General  says  of  them:  They  are  spread 
ttiroughout  the  country  from  Maine  to  southern  California.    They  are 


1 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  77 


of  the  results  of  their  work.  This  will  give  an 
idea  of  the  large  numbers  who  ought  never  to 
have  been  allowed  to  leave  home. 

The  following  table  shows  the  principal  classes  Record  of 
of  excluded  for  the  past  fourteen  years,  with  the  °<=t'"' 
total  debarred  for  each  year,  and  the  percentage : 


THE  DEBARRED  FOR  THE  YEARS  1892-1905 


il<ely 
ublic 

c  ^ 

a  o 

rcrs 

■a 

ivhole 

o 

—  a. 

o 

0 

•s 

s 

*o 

Year 

Immi- 
grants 

S 
o 

a 

rt 

Paupers,  o 
to  becom 
charges 

Loathsome 
gcrous  CO 
diseases 

Convicts 

.Assisted 
Immigrants 

Contract  1; 

Total  deba 

Percentage 

1892 

579.663 

4 

17 

1.002 

SO 

20 

23 

932 

2,164 

0.4 

1893 

439,730 

3 

8 

431 

SI 

12 

518 

1,053 

0.2 

1894 

285,031 

4 

5 

802 

15 

8 

553 

1,389 

0.5 

1895 

258,536 

6 

1,714 

4 

i 

094 

2,419 

0.9 

1896 

343,267 

1 

io 

2,010 

0 

770 

2,799 

0.8 

1897 

230,832 

1 

0 

1,277 

1 

'i 

■3 

328 

1,617 

0.7 

1898 

229,299 

1 

12 

2,261 

258 

2 

79 

417 

3,030 

1.3 

1899 

311,715 

1 

19 

2,599 

348 

8 

82 

741 

3,798 

1.2 

1900 

448,572 

1 

32 

2,974 

393 

4 

2 

833 

4,246 

1.0 

1901 

487,918 

6 

16 

2,798 

300 

7 

.50 

327 

3,516 

0.7 

1902 

648,743 

7 

27 

3,944 

700 

9 

275 

4,974 

0.8 

1903 

857,040 

1 

23 

5,S!2 

1,773 

51 

'9 

1,080 

8,769 

1.0 

1904 

812,870 

16 

33 

4,798 

1,500 

35 

38 

1..501 

7,994 

1.0 

1905 

1.026.499 

38 

92 

7,898 

2,198 

39 

19 

1,104 

11,480 

1.2 

Total  debarred  in  the  fourteen  years,  59,248. 


The  debarred  have  the  right  of  appeal,  from  ^^e^^  of 

the  Special  Inquiry  Board  which  excludes  them,  ^'p"' 
to  the  Commissioner  of  the  Port,  then  to  the 
Commissioner-General,  and  finally  to  the  Secre- 

thoroughly  organized  under  competent  chiefs,  many  of  them  working 
regardless  of  hours,  whether  breaking  the  seals  of  freight  cars  on 
the  southern  border  to  prevent  the  smuggHng  of  Chinese,  or 
watching  the  countless  routes  of  in.gress  from  Canada,  ever  alert 
and  willing,  equally  efficient  in  detecting  the  inadmissible  alien 
and  the  pretended  citizen.  The  Bureau  asserts  with  confidence  that, 
excepting  a  very  few,  the  government  of  this  country  has  no  more 
able  and  faithful  servants  in  its  employ,  either  civil  or  military,  than 
the  immigration  officers. 


78 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Exclusion 
by  Races 


Increase  of 
Undesirable 


Fraud  of 

Transportation 

Companies 


tary  of  Commerce  and  Labor.  The  steamship 
Hnes  that  brought  them  have  to  pay  costs  of 
detention  and  deportation,  which  is  one  means  of 
making  these  Hnes  careful. 

A  second  table,  which  shows  the  exclusion  by 
races,  will  repay  study.  It  is  given  in  Appendix 
A.  It  not  only  shows  where  the  bulk  of  the 
excluded  belong,  but  reveals  not  a  little  con- 
cerning the  character  of  those  admitted  who 
come  from  the  same  races.  The  intention  of  the 
present  Commissioner-General  is  to  enforce  the 
laws  strictly,  yet  in  a  humane  spirit.  Comparing 
the  figures  for  the  two  years  1903- 1904,  he 
says : 

"The  most  significant  feature  of  this  state- 
ment is  the  large  increase  in  the  number  of  idiots, 
insane  persons,  and  paupers  during  1905,  which, 
coupled  with  an  increase  of  twenty-five  per  cent, 
in  the  number  of  diseased  aliens,  justifies  the 
Bureau  in  directing  attention  to  the  flagrant  and 
wilful  disregard  by  the  ocean  carriers  of  the 
laws  for  the  regulation  of  their  business  of  secur- 
ing alien  passengers  destined  for  the  United 
States."! 

This  brings  up  a  point  of  vast  importance  in 
more  ways  than  one.  The  official  reports  charge 
wholesale  deception,  evasion,  and  fraud  upon  the 
great  transportation  companies.  The  fact  stands 
for  itself  that  in  1904  they  were  fined  more  than 


'Commissioner-General's  Report  for  1005,  p.  41. 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  79 


$31,000  under  the  section  of  the  law  imposing  a 
$100  penalty  for  bringing  a  diseased  alien  whose 
disease  might  have  been  detected  by  a  competent 
medical  examination  at  the  port  of  departure. 
For  many  years  these  companies  have  in  doubtful 
cases  demanded  double  passage  money,  so  that 
they  might  make  a  profit  both  ways  if  the  alien 
were  rejected.  The  Italian  government  has 
passed  an  Act  giving  an  alien  right  to  recover  the 
money  illegally  retained  in  this  way,  showing  the 
practice,  and  the  government  opinion  of  it. 

The  truth  is,  the  transportation  agent  has  Artificial 
become  a  figure  of  international  consequence  and  swelling  oi 

Passage  Ft 

concern.  The  artificial  cause  behind  the  present 
unprecedented  exodus  from  Europe,  according 
to  Whelpley,  is  the  abnormal  activity  of  the 
transportation  companies  in  their  effort  to 
secure  new  and  profitable  cargo  for  their  ships. 
In  1900  over  $118,000,000  was  invested  in  trans- 
atlantic steamship  lines,  which  are  largely  owned 
by  foreigners.  New  lines  to  the  Mediterranean 
have  been  put  on  with  distinct  purpose  to  swell 
the  Italian  and  Slav  immigration.  Rate  cutting 
has  at  times  made  it  possible  for  the  steerage  pas- 
senger to  go  from  Liverpool  to  New  York  for  as 
low  as  $8.75.  The  average  rate  is  not  high 
enough  to  deter  anyone  who  really  wants  to 
come.  An  English  line,  in  return  for  establishing 
a  line  direct  from  a  Mediterranean  port,  has  1 
secured  from  the  Hungarian  government  a  guar-  I 


8o  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Solicitation 
Law  Violated 


The  Ubiq- 
uitous and 
Unscrupulous 
"Runner" 


antee  of  30,000  immigrants  a  year  from  its  ter- 
ritory. 

The  law  forbids  transportation  companies  or 
the  owners  of  vessels  to  "directly  or  through 
agents,  either  by  written,  printed,  or  oral  solici- 
tations, solicit,  invite,  or  encourage  the  immigra- 
tion of  any  aliens  into  the  United  States  except 
by  ordinary  commercial  letters,  circulars,  adver- 
tisements, or  oral  representations,  stating  the 
sailings  of  their  vessels  and  terms  and  facilities 
of  transportation  therein."  That  this  restrictive 
provision  is  persistently  evaded  is  made  plain  by 
the  reports  of  government  inspectors  sent  abroad 
to  investigate.  The  annual  migration  involves 
more  than  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and 
where  money  is  to  be  made  law  is  easily 
disobeyed. 

One  of  the  inspectors  says  the  chief  evil  in  this 
solicitation  business  is  the  so-called  "runner." 
Here  is  his  description  of  this  mischievous  genus 
homo.  "It  is  he  who  goes  around  in  eastern  and 
southern  Europe  from  city  to  city  and  village  to 
village  telling  fairy  tales  about  the  prosperity  of 
many  immigrants  in  America  and  the  opportuni- 
ties offered  by  the  United  States  for  aliens.  The 
runner  does  not  know  of  anyone  who  is  undesir- 
able ;  he  claims  to  be  all-powerful,  that  he  has 
representatives  in  every  port  who  can  'open  the 
door'  of  America  to  anyone.  It  is  he  who  induces 
many  a  diseased  person  to  attempt  the  journey. 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  8l 


and  it  is  also  he  and  his  associates  who  do  their 
best  to  have  the  undesirables  admitted.  The 
steamship  companies,  as  a  rule,  do  not  deal  with 
these  runners  directly  and  disclaim  all  responsi- 
bility for  their  nefarious  practices.  But  the 
official  agents  of  the  steamship  companies  do 
pay  their  runners  commissions  for  every  immi- 
grant referred  to  them.  I  have  especially  studied 
this  problem  along  the  borders  of  Germany, 
Russia,  and  Austrian  Galicia.  Here  most  of  the 
emigrants  are  smuggled  across  the  frontiers  by 
these  runners  and  robbed  of  the  greater  part  of 
their  cash  possessions.  When  they  arrive  at  the 
'control  station'  it  is  remarkable  that  most  emi- 
grants have  cards  with  the  address  of  a  certain 
steamship  ticket  agent,  and  the  agent,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  a  list  of  all  the  individuals  who 
were  smuggled  across  the  frontiers.  When  I 
asked  one  of  these  representatives  how  this  was 
done,  he  told  me  that  he  paid  'good  commissions' 
to  the  runner  on  the  other  side  of  the  frontier 
for  each  case.  When  steamship  companies  and 
their  agents  stop  paying  commissions  to  runners 
for  emigrants  referred  to  them,  individuals  will 
only  by  their  own  initiative  attempt  to  come  to  the 
United  States,  and  most  of  those  considered 
undesirable  will  remain  at  their  native  homes."^  I 

Violations  of  law  abound.    Smuggling  persons 
is  regarded  with  much  the  same  moral  leniency  contempt 

^Immigration  Report  for  igos,  p.  56. 


82 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


as  smuggling  goods.  The  law  forbids  importa- 
tion of  persons  under  contract  to  work.  In  April 
last  two  Italian  steamships  carried  back  to 
Europe  more  than  i,ooo  laborers,  who  had  been 
brought  over  in  violation  of  the  contract-labor 
laws.  Commissioner  Watchorn  had  word  from 
his  special  investigators  abroad  that  the  men 
had  been  collected  in  the  Balkan  States  to  work 
for  padrones  in  this  country.  So  back  went  the 
thousand  Slavs ;  but  it  was  a  chance  discovery. 
The  men  admitted  that  the  padrones  had  paid 
their  passage  and  agreed  to  furnish  them  work. 
They  said  the  rosiest  conditions  had  been  painted 
before  their  eyes,  and  they  believed  "big  money" 
was  to  be  made  here.  The  steamship  companies 
had  to  bear  the  expense  of  taking  them  back,  but 
the  padrones  have  not  suf¥ered  any  penalty,  and 
will  go  on  with  their  unlawful  work. 
How  the  Mr.  Brandenburg  learned  from  an  Italian 

Engaged  womau  that  her  husband  had  been  commissioned 
by  a  contractor  in  Pittsburg  to  go  into  the  Italiaa 
provinces  of  Austria  and  engage  200  good  stone- 
masons, 200  good  carpenters,  and  an  indefinite 
number  of  unskilled  laborers.  These  people  were 
to  be  put  in  touch  with  sub-agents  of  lines  sailing 
from  Hamburg,  Fiume,  and  Bremen,  and  these 
agents  were  to  be  accountable  for  these  contract 
laborers  being  got  safely  into  the  United  States. 
This  woman  said  many  of  her  neighbors  in 
Pittsburg  had  come  into  the  country  as  contract 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  83 


laborers  and  held  the  law  in  great  contempt,  as 
it  was  merely  a  matter  of  being  sufficiently 
instructed  and  prepared,  and  no  official  at  Boston 
or  Ellis  Island  could  tell  the  difference.^  Why 
should  not  the  law  be  held  in  contempt,  not  only 
this  one  but  all  law,  by  the  immigrant  who  is 
introduced  to  America  through  its  violation,  and 
trained  to  perjure  himself  at  the  outset  of  his  new 
career?  Does  not  the  Commissioner-General 
sound  a  note  of  warning  when  he  says : 

"It  is  not  reasonable  to  anticipate  that  if  the  The  chnstii 
great  transportation  lines  do  not  respect  the  laws  "^"'^ 
of  this  country  their  alien  passengers  will  do  so, 
nor  can  it  be  conceded  that  those  aliens  whose 
entrance  to  the  United  States  is  effected  in  spite 
of  the  law  are  desirable  or  even  safe  additions  to 
our  population."^ 

It  is  painful  to  think  that  such  conditions  can  Remedy 
exist  in  connection  with  so  vital  a  matter  as  immi-  Demanded 
gration.  But  it  is  better  to  have  the  facts  known, 
in  order  that  a  remedy  may  be  found.  Publicity  is 
the  safety  of  republics  and  communities.  And  the 
disclosures  of  the  lengths  to  which  men  will  go 
in  order  to  make  money  should  give  new  and 
mighty  impulse  to  those  who  believe  in  righteous- 
ness and  have  not  bowed  to  the  god  mammon. 
If  the  work  of  Christianizing  the  aliens  is  made 
harder  by  the  experiences  through  which  they 


'Broughton  Brandenburg,  Imported  Americans,  ,33. 
^Immigration  Report  for  190s,  p.  48. 


84  Aliens  or  Americans? 


pass  and  the  examples  they  have  set  before  them 
by  unscrupulous  persons,  it  must  be  undertaken 
with  so  much  the  more  zeal.  Respect  for  law 
must  be  preserved,  and  one  of  the  best  ways  to 
accomplish  this  is  to  see  to  it  that  the  laws  are 
enforced  and  the  violators  of  them  punished,  even 
though  they  represent  giant  corporations  and 
vast  capital. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  II 

Aim  :  To  Realize  the  Necessity  of  Just  and  Ade- 
quate Laws  for  the  Admission  and  Restriction 
OF  Immigrants 

I.  Method  of  Admission. 

1.  What  proportion  of  the  immigrants  now  com- 
ing land  at  New  York? 

2.  What  is  Ellis  Island  like — materially — spiritu- 
ally? 

3.  Suppose  yourself  an  immigrant :  what  steps 
would  you  take  to  reach  New  York?  What 
processes  would  you  undergo  on  landing? 
How  would  you  be  directed? 

II.  Governmental  Regulation. 

4.  What  two  kinds  of  government  regulation  are 
practicable?    Are  both  in  force? 

5.  Do  the  steamship  companies  obey  the  law? 
with  regard  to  its  letter?  to  its  real  intent? 

III.  Restriction. 

6.  *  Do  you  think  unrestricted  immigration  is  best 

for  our  countrj'? 

7.  Why  is  the  present  discrimination  against  the 
Chinese  not  just? 


Alien  Admission  and  Restriction  85 


8.  When  and  to  what  extent  was  control  over 
immigration  assumed  by  the  United  States 
Government  ? 

9.  What  measures  were  passed  in  1903?  Has 
there  been  any  action  since? 

10.  What  classes  of  immigrants  are  excluded  as 
unfit?    Who  decides  in  case  of  doubt? 

11.  Are  many  immigrants  sent  back?   Why  do  the 
steamship  companies  bring  the  unfit? 

IV.  Violation. 

12.  How   is   immigration   solicited?     How   is  it 
coerced  ? 

13.  What  is  the  purpose  and  what  the  actual  work- 
ing of  the  "Contract-Labor  Law"  ? 

V.    What  Can  the  Christian  Public  do  to  Improve 
Conditions? 

14.  *  Can  we  expect  immigrants  to  obey  our  laws, 

if  they  are  started  in  such  ways?   Why  not? 

15.  Has  Christian  public  opinion  any  special  duty 
in  this  matter?    What  is  it? 

References  for  Advanced  Study. — Chapter  H 

L    Visit  and  inspect  if  possible,  some  receiving  station 
for  immigrants,  and  report ;  or  else  consult  the 
statements  and  charts  of  Reports  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Immigration,  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1905- 

II.    Describe    the    Brandenburgs    during   life  among 
Italians,  and  journey  to  this  country  as  immi- 
grants; their  aims,  and  the  results  achieved. 
Brandenburg:  Imported  Americans,  IV,  XIII,  XV, 
XXIL 


86  Aliens  or  Americans? 


III.  The  present  regulation  of  imtnigrants,  with  spe- 
cial reference  to  "The  Excluded." 

Laws  for  1903. 

Hall :  Immigration,  216-231. 

Brandenburg:  Imported  Americans,  248-274. 

IV.  Is  there  need  for  further  restriction? 
Hall :  Immigration,  XI,  XII. 
Hunter:  Poverty,  VI. 

Charities  and  The  Commons,  issue  for  March  31, 
1906. 


The  evils  attendant  upon  unrestricted 
immigration  are  not  theoretical  but 
actual.  Emigration  from  one  place 
becomes  immigration  into  another.  It  is 
an  international  affair  of  greatest  impor- 
tance, and  should  be  speedily  recognised 
as  such. — J.  D.  Whelpley. 


Ill 

PROBLEMS  OF  LEGISLATION  AND 
DISTRIBUTION 


87 


The  immigration  question  in  this  country  has  never 
had  the  attention  to  which  its  importance  entitles  it.  It 
has  sometimes  been  the  scapegoat  of  religious  and 
racial  prejudices,  and  always,  in  recent  years,  an  annual 
sacrifice  to  the  gods  of  transportation. — Prescott  F. 
Hall. 

It  is  exasperating  to  any  patriotic  American  to  have 
brought  convincingly  before  him  the  proofs  of  a  whole- 
sale evasion  of  a  very  carefully  planned  code  of  laws 
which  he  fain  would  think  is  a  sufficient  protection  of 
his  country's  best  interests.  It  is  more  annoying  to 
realize  that  the  successful  evaders  are  for  the  most  part 
foreigners,  and  those,  too,  of  commonly  despised  races. 
The  conclusion  is  plain :  Seek  the  grounds  on  which 
to  deny  passage  to  undesirable  emigrants  who  wish  to 

come  to  the  United  States,  in  the  villages  from  which 

*  . 

they  emanate.  In  the  communes  of  their  nativity  the 
truth  is  known  and  cannot  be  hidden. — Broughton 
Brandenburg. 

The  mesh  of  the  law  needs  to  be  stiffened  rather  than 
relaxed.  The  benefit  of  the  doubt  belongs  to  the  United 
States  rather  than  to  the  alien  who  clamors  for  admit- 
tance.— C ommissioner-General  Sargent. 

Distribution,  rather  than  wholesale  restriction,  is 
being  more  and  more  recognized  as  the  real  way  out  of 
the  difficulties  presented  by  our  immense  unassimilated 
immigration. — Gino  C.  Speranza. 

The  need  is  to  devise  some  system  by  which  unde- 
sirable immigrants  shall  be  kept  out  entirely,  while 
desirable  immigrants  are  properly  distributed  through- 
out the  country. — President  Roosevelt. 


Ill 


PROBLEMS  OF  LEGISLATION  AND 
DISTRIBUTION 


HERE  is  a  growing  conviction  that  some-  Difficulties  in 


tiling  ought  to  be  done  to  check  the  present 
enormous  inflow  of  immigrants.  But  Avhen  it 
comes  to  what  that  something  is,  difficulties  at 
once  arise.  There  are  so  many  foreigners  already 
in  x\merica,  and  so  many  children  of  foreign-born 
parents,  that  it  is  impossible  to  touch  the  stream 
at  any  point  without  protest  from  some  source. 
As  some  one  says,  "You  do  not  have  to  go  very 
far  back  in  the  family  line  of  any  of  us  to  find  an 
immigrant.  Scratch  an  American  and  you  find 
a  foreigner."  And  not  a  few  of  these  foreigners 
sympathize  with  the  Irishman  who  said  to  a  lady 
against  whom  he  had  a  grievance  because  she 
insisted  on  having  a  Chinese  servant,  "We  have 
a  right  here  that  those  who  are  here  by  the  mere 
accident  of  birth  have  not."  On  the  other  hand, 
it  was  a  foreigner  of  wide  vision  who  said:  "I  do 
not  believe  there  is  any  peculiar  virtue  in  Ameri- 
can birth,  or  that  Americans  are  (per  se) 
superior  to  all  other  nations  ;  but  I  do  believe  that 
they  are  better  fitted  than  all  others  to  govern 


/.    The  Present  Sitttation 


89 


90 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


their  own  country.   Thev  made  the  country  what 
it  is,  and  ought  to  have  tlie  first  voice  in  deter- 
mining what  it  is  to  be.    In  this  alone  consists 
their  superiority."' 
7***  .     .        It  is  significant  and  hopeful  that  men  are  think- 

Immigration  ^  _  ' 

Conference  iug  upou  the  subjcct.  \\'hat  wc  want  is  full  anil 
of  1905  fair  discussion  and  thorough  information.  Noth- 
ing is  so  perilous  in  a  democracy  as  ignorance 
and  indifference.  It  is  far  better  for  men  to  dis- 
agree tlioughtfully  than  to  agree  thoughtlessly. 
What  all  patriotic  and  Christian  men  seek  is  the 
best  good  of  this  country,  which  means  so  much 
to  the  whole  world  as  the  supreme  experiment 
of  self-government.  That  the  people  are  awaken- 
ing was  shown  by  the  Immigration  Conference 
in  New  York  in  December  of  1(705,  when  five 
hundred  men,  most  of  them  appointed  by  their 
state  governors,  gathered  under  the  auspices  of 
the  National  Civic  Federation  to  discuss  the 
whole  question  of  immigration.  The  immigration 
experts  of  the  country  were  present,  ami  the 
company  included  United  States  Senators  and 
Representatives,  college  presidents  and  profes- 
sors, leading  editors,  lawyers  ami  clergymen,  and 
prominent  labor  leaders. 

No  such  conference  on  this  subject  has  before 
been  held,  and  the  results  of  the  discussion, 
which  was  for  the  most  part  as  temperate  and 
sensible  as  it  was  straightforwartl.  were  such 

'Prof.  H.  H.  Boyesen. 


Conclusions 
Reached 


Legislation  and  Distribution  91 


as  to  bring  about  a  better  understanding  between 
the  men  who  are  supposed  to  be  theorists  and  the 
representatives  of  American  labor.  The  resolu- 
tions unanimously  adopted  were  conservative 
and  practical.  The  most  important  recommenda- 
tions call  for  admission  tests  in  Europe  rather 
than  after  the  alien  has  reached  America,  for 
the  spread  of  information  leading  to  better  dis- 
tribution, and  for  the  establishment  of  a  com- 
mission to  investigate  the  subject  of  immigration 
in  all  its  relations,  including  the  violations  and 
evasions  of  the  present  law.  Undoubtedly  such 
a  commission,  appointed  by  the  president  and 
possessed  of  competent  authority,  could  accom- 
plish much  good.  For  one  thing,  it  could  keep 
the  matter  before  the  people  and  wisely  guide 
public  sentiment. 

However  much  men  may  dif¥er  in  view  as  The  Right  of 
to  specific  legislation,  one  point  ought  to  be  fi^n"^'^"**'^' 
regarded  as  settled.  That  is,  the  right  of  Con- 
gress to  pass  such  laws  as  may  be  deemed  essen- 
tial to  safeguard  American  institutions  and 
liberties.  A  nation  has  the  inalienable  right  to 
protect  itself  against  foreign  invasion;  and  it 
does  not  matter  whether  the  invasion  be  armed 
or  under  the  guise  of  immigration.  No  foreign 
nation  has  the  right  to  send  its  peoples  to  Amer- 
ica, or  by  persecution  to  drive  them  forth  upon 
other  nations,  and  no  foreigner  has  any  inherent 
right  to  claim  admission  to  the  United  States. 


92  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Welfare  of  the 
State  Supreme 


Cases  that  call 
for  Reform 


Astonishing 
Abuses 


Right  is  determined,  in  migration  as  in  civic 
relations,  not  by  the  will  or  whim  of  the  individ- 
ual, but  by  the  welfare  of  the  state.  Further  than 
this,  the  government  has  the  right  to  deport  at 
any  time  any  aliens  who  may  be  regarded  as  unfit 
to  remain.  There  ought  to  be  no  confusion  as  to 
rights  in  this  matter. 

The  question  recurs,  however,  is  there  need 
of  doing  anything?  As  to  this  President  Roose- 
velt and  the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigra- 
tion are  agreed.  In  his  last  annual  message  the 
President  recommended  the  prohibition  of  immi- 
gration through  Canada  and  ]\Iexico,  the 
strengthening  of  our  exclusion  laws,  heavier 
restraints  upon  the  steamship  companies,  and 
severer  penalties  for  enticing  immigrants.  It  is 
a  striking  fact  that  nearly  all  of  the  proposed 
additions  to  our  laws  are  intended  to  stop  the 
evasion  and  violation  of  the  laws  we  have,  which 
are  made  ineffective  by  fraud  and  questionable 
practices  of  the  most  extensive  kind.  A  recent 
writer^  presents  this  matter  in  condensed  form 
worthy  of  study,  giving  this  "astonishing  cata- 
logue of  abuses,"  brought  to  light  by  special 
inspectors  in  the  employ  of  the  Immigration 
Bureau : 

"i.  The  importation  of  contract  laborers,  usually 
under  the  direction  of  padrones,  from  Greece,  Italy, 
and  Austria-Hungary. 

"2.  The  smuggling  of  immigrants  across  the  Canadian 
'Frederick  Austin  Ogg,  in  Outlook  for  May  5,  1906. 


Legislation  and  Distribution  93 


and  Mexican  borders  who  would  be  certain  of  rejection 
at  our  Atlantic  ports. 

"3.  The  'patching  up'  of  immigrants  afflicted  with 
favus,  trachoma,  and  other  loathsome  or  contagious 
diseases  so  that  they  can  get  past  the  inspectors  without 
detection,  even  though  the  process  is  likely  to  augment 
their  sufferings  later. 

"4.  The  forgery  and  sale  of  spurious  naturalization 
certificates  and  the  repeated  use  of  the  same  certificates 
passed  back  and  forth  between  relatives  and  friends. 

"5.  The  assisting  of  immigration,  either  by  local 
authorities  in  Europe  or  by  earlier  comers  in  America. 

"6.  The  stimulating'of  immigration  by  transportation 
companies  and  their  armies  of  paid  agents  and  sub- 
agents  in  Europe." 

As  a  result,  Mr.  Ogg  says,  of  the  widespread  a  Plain 
operations  through  these  underground  channels  Necessity 
there  is  an  abnormal  immigration  movement  so 
■vast  as  "to  override  and  all  but  reduce  to  a  mere 
joke  our  whole  restrictive  system.  That  an 
appalling  number  of  aliens  who  are  on  the  verge 
of  dependency,  defectiveness,  and  delinquency 
do  somehow  contrive  to  get  into  the  country 
every  year  is  a  fact  too  well  known  to  call  for 
verification  here.  Nobody  undertakes  to  deny 
it."  There  is  plain  necessity,  therefore,  that  some 
means  of  redeeming  the  situation  should  be 
found. 

//.    Proposed  Legislation 
The  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration,  in  Recom- 

mendations 

his  report  for  1905,  devotes  much  space  to  new 
or  amendatory  legislation,  which  he  regards  as 


94 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Value  of 

International 

Conference 


Immigration 
Bills  in 
Congress 


a  necessity.^  To  bring  the  steamship  companies 
to  stricter  regard  for  law,  he  would  raise  the 
penalty  for  carrying  diseased  persons  from  $ioo 
to  $500.  He  favors  the  debarring  of  illiterates, 
and  as  a  special  recommendation  proposes  an 
international  conference  of  immigration  experts, 
with  a  view  to  secure  by  treaty  or  convention  the 
cooperation  of  foreign  countries  from  which 
aliens  migrate  hither,  both  in  reducing  the  num- 
ber of  immigrants  and  preventing  the  inadmissi- 
ble and  undesirable  classes  'from  leaving  their 
own  homes. 

Such  a  conference  would  certainly  be  con- 
ducive to  a  good  understanding  between  nations, 
would  doubtless  secure  an  effective  restraint  of 
the  transportation  agencies,  and  throw  such  light 
upon  the  attitude  of  foreign  governments  toward 
our  present  system  of  immigration  restriction  as 
would  enable  Congress  to  decide  intelligently  what 
additional  measures  are  necessary  to  protect  tliis 
country  from  the  dangers  of  an  increasing  influx 
of  aliens.  This  is  an  admirable  recommendation. 
As  Mr.  Whelpley  says,  it  is  a  question  of  emigra- 
tion as  well  as  immigration,  and  since  two  coun- 
tries are  interested  in  the  migrants,  the  whole 
matter  is  properly  one  for  international  confer- 
ence and  action. 

The  interest  taken  by  Congress  in  immigra- 
tion is  indicated  bv  the  introduction  in  the  House 


'A  synopsis  of  these  recommendations  will  be  found  in  Appendix  B. 


Legislation  and  Distribution 


95 


during  the  session  of  1906  of  nineteen  bills 
to  regulate  or  restrict  immigration,  while  a  num- 
ber were  introduced  in  the  Senate  also.  The 
House  Committee  on  Immigration,  of  which  Mr. 
Gardner,  of  Massachusetts,  is  chairman,  took  all 
the  bills  into  consideration  and  reported  a  com- 
prehensive Bill  to  Regulate  the  Immigration  of 
Aliens  into  the  United  States.  This  proposed 
law  advances  considerably  beyond  the  Act  of 
1903,  which  it  is  designed  to  replace.  It  raises 
the  head  tax  from  $2  to  $5,  introduces  the  read- 
ing test/  and  practically  creates  a  money  test 
also,  by  requiring  every  male  immigrant  to  have 
$25  in  hand  at  the  time  of  examination.^  The 
money  from  the  head  tax  is  to  constitute  a  perma- 
nent immigration  fund,  to  defray  not  only  the 
cost  of  the  Immigration  Bureau,  but  also  that  of 
maintaining  an  information  bureau,  to  save  immi- 
grants from  being  deceived  and  show  them  where 
they  are  most  wanted  and  likely  to  succeed." 
The  section  in  this  proposed  legislation  that 

'Sec.  38.  That  no  alien  immigrant  over  sixteen  years  of  age  physi- 
cally capable  of  reading  shall  be  admitted  to  the  United  States  until 
he  has  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  proper  inspection  officers 
that  he  can  read  English  or  some  other  tongue  .  .  provided  that 
an  admissible  alien  over  sixteen,  or  a  person  now  or  hereafter  in  the 
United  States  of  like  age,  may  bring  in  or  send  for  his  wife,  mother, 
aflfianced  wife,  or  father  over  fifty-five,  if  they  are  otherwise  admis- 
sible, whether  able  to  read  or  write  or  not. 

'Sec.  39.  That  every  male  alien  immigrant  over  sixteen  shall  be 
deemed  likely  to  become  a  public  charge  unless  he  shows  to  the 
proper  immigration  officials  that  he  has  in  his  possession  at  the  time 
of  inspection  money  to  the  equivalent  of  $25,  or  that  the  head  of  his 
family  entering  with  him  so  holds  that  amount  to  his  account. 
Every  female  alien  must  have  $15. 

^The  Bill,  as  amended,  left  the  head  tax  at  $2,  and  the  reading 
test  was  omitted.  Great  opposition  to  the  Bill  came  from  the  for- 
eign element,  especially  the  Jews. 


96 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


has  caused  most  discussion  and  dissension  is  the 
illiteracy  test.  This  measure  has  been  pressed  upon 
Congress  by  the  Immigration  Restrictive  League 
ever  since  the  organization  of  that  Society  in 
1894.  Senator  Lodge  fathered  it  and  it  was 
passed  once  and  vetoed  by  President  Cleveland.- 
President  Roosevelt  recommended  it  in  his 
message  of  December  3,  1901,  and  it  has  received 
the  endorsement  of  many  boards  of  charities  and 
many  leading  men.  The  strongest  argument  in 
favor  of  it  is  contained  in  a  resolution  passed 
by  the  Associated  Charities  of  Boston,  although 
the  same  argument  applies  broadly  to  the  ques- 
tion of  restriction.  The  reading  test  was  dis- 
cussed by  speakers  at  the  National  Immigration 
Conference,  but  that  meeting  did  not  include  it  in 
the  resolutions  adopted.  The  Jewish  influence  is 
thrown  strongly  against  it,  since  the  Russian 
Jews  who  are  fleeing  from  oppression  are  among 
the  most  illiterate  of  the  present  immigration. 
This  is  due  to  lack  of  school  facilities,  however, 
for  the  Jews  naturally  take  to  education  and 
the  Jewish  children  in  the  public  schools  and 
high  schools  are  carrying  off  the  prizes.  "Not 
long  ago  I  saw  a  Jewish  girl  in  a  New  England 
academy  win  the  prize  in  constitutional  histor}' 
over  the  heads  of  the  boys  and  girls  from 
American  families,  though  her  father  was  an  illit- 
erate Russian  Jew."^ 

>Dr.  Goodchild. 


i 


Legislation  and  Distribution  97 


That  is  not  by  any  means  an  unusual  testi-  in  Favor  of 
mony.  Another  fact  worthy  of  note  is  that 
many  of  those  who  have  worked  most  closely 
among  the  immigrants  do  not  favor  the  reading 
test.  Mr.  Brandenburg,  for  example,  suggests 
that  the  illiterates  often  prove  less  opinionated 
and  more  easily  assimilable  than  others  of  the 
same  race  who  can  read  and  write,  and  says 
that  so  far  as  his  experience  goes  the  great  pro- 
portion of  the  rascals  and  undesirables  can  read 
and  write ;  that  if  he  had  his  choice  between 
admitting  to  this  country  a  wealthy  educated 
Roman  nobleman  or  an  illiterate  Neapolitan  or 
Sicilian  laborer,  he  would  take  the  laborer  every 
time,  for  his  brain  and  brawn  and  heart  make  the 
better  foundation  on  which  to  build  the  institu- 
tions of  our  Republic.  Miss  Kate  Claghorn  and 
other  experienced  workers  agree  in  this  view, 
and  think  it  would  be  a  positive  misfortune  to 
make  ability  to  read  the  deciding  test.  Nor 
would  these  experts  favor  the  money  test.  They 
believe  the  inspectors  should  have  more  leeway, 
as  judges  of  human  nature,  and  would  rather 
rely  on  their  judgment  as  to  the  character  of 
the  applicant  than  upon  any  arbitrary  tests.  So 
this  is  an  open  question  for  discussion,  with  good 
arguments  on  both  sides. 

There  are  three  propositions  further.     The  Funher 
first  is  a  measure  introduced  into  the  House  by 
the  late  Congressman  Adams  of  Pennsylvania. 


98 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


This  would  restrict  by  law  the  total  number  of 
immigrants  from  any  given  country  in  any  one 
year  to  80,000.  This  would  decrease  the  south 
of  Europe  quota,  and  might  increase  tliat  from 
northern  Europe.  It  would  at  any  rate  tend  to 
stop  the  million  a  year  rate. 
Itinerant  xhc  sccond  mcasurc  is  proposed  by  Mr.  Bran-  , 
denburg,  who  feels  sure  it  would  prove  the 
desired  remedy.  His  opinion  carries  a  good  deal 
of  weight.  His  proposal  is  to  "select  emi- 
grants before  itinerant  boards  of  two,  three,  or 
more  native-bom  Americans  who  speak  fluently 
and  understand  thoroughly  the  language  and 
dialects  of  the  people  who  come  before  them — 
these  boards  to  be  on  a  civil  service  basis,"  and 
to  sit  at  stated  times  in  the  central  cities  of  the 
countries  whence  aliens  come.^  This  he  believes 
to  be  "a  correct  solution  of  the  gigantic  prob- 
lem." It  would  keep  expense  down,  avoid 
opportunities  for  wholesale  corruption  of  Ameri- 
can officials  by  the  transporation  interests  and 
the  immigrants  themselves,  and  enable  the  exam- 
iners to  deny  passage  to  persons  desirous  of 
going  to  districts  already  over-populated  with 
aliens. 

Inspection  third  measure  is  in  line  with  the  second, 

Abroad  instead  of  establishing  itinerant  boards  of 

examiners,  it  proposes  to  select  fifteen  or  twenty 
ports  abroad  which  shall  be  made  exclusive  points 


•  Broughton  Brandenburg,  Imported  Americans,  302. 


Legislation  and  Distribution  99 


for  the  embarkation  of  emigrants  bound  for  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Ogg  states  the  plan  as 
follows : 

"Perhaps  an  adequate  list  would  be  Hamburg,  List  ot  cities 
Bremen,  Stettin,  Rotterdam,  Antwerp,  London, 
Southampton,  Liverpool,  Havre,  St.  Nazaire, 
Marseilles,  Fiume,  Trieste,  Naples,  Genoa,  and 
Odessa.  At  each  of  these  ports  should  be  located 
an  immigrant  station,  similar,  in  a  general  way,  to 
the  immigrant  stations  at  our  larger  Atlantic 
ports  to-day,  and  it  should  be  made  the  duty 
of  the  resident  commissioners,  with  their  staffs 
of  inspectors  and  medical  attaches,  to  examine 
carefully  and  minutely  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  of  alien  nationality  who  applies  for  pas- 
sage to  the  United  States.  Successful  applicants 
should  be  given  a  certificate  which  alone  would 
enable  them  to  land  at  the  port  of  destination ; 
those  unsuccessful  should  be  made  to  understand 
then  and  there  that,  in  their  present  state  at  least, 
there  is  no  chance  for  them  to  carry  out  their 
intention  of  migration,  and  that  the  best  thing 
for  them  to  do  is  to  return  to  their  homes. 

This  radical  plan  proposes  to  transfer  Ellis  Do  the  sifting 

T  1       1    •        <-/-  ,-  *°  Europe 

Island,  m  effect,  to  a  score  of  pomts  m  Europe, 
and  do  the  sifting  before  the  starting.  That 
would  be  sensible.  Then  only  the  desirable  por- 
tion would  get  here.  While  the  idea  is  radical, 
it  is  the  outgrowth  of  years  of  experience  and  re- 

'  Outlook  for  May  $,  1906. 


lOO  Aliens  or  Americans? 


flection,  and  Mr.  Ogg  says,  immigration  officials 
are  generally  agreed  upon  its  wisdom  and  practi- 
cability. This  system,  thoroughly  carried  out, 
would  not  only  stop  all  immigration  that  is  ille- 
gal, but  as  much  as  possible  of  that  which,  though 
not  illegal,  is  questionable  and  undesirable.  ^lore 
tests  applied  at  this  end  of  the  route  will  be  only 
partially  effective,  since  experience  proves  that  the 
present  tests  are  evaded.  The  means  of  reform, 
upon  which  all  other  immigration  reforms  must 
wait,  lies  in  this  shifting  of  the  main  work  of 
supervision  and  inspection  to  Europe.  The  for- 
eign governments  would  welcome  the  plan,  or  at 
least  accept  it  if  proposed  by  this  country. 
What  this      This   system   would   serve   to   prevent  the 

would  Ac-  ^ 

compHsh  tragedies  of  the  excluded;  would  go  far  toward 
stopping  the  pernicious  activity  of  the  steamship 
companies  and  their  enticing  emissaries ;  would 
facilitate  the  detection  and  punishment  of  those 
breakers  and  evaders  of  the  law  who  are  now 
immune ;  and  it  would  make  possible  a  quite  dif- 
ferent and  more  searching  examination  of  intend- 
ing immigrants  than  is  possible  when  the  mass 
of  them  is  poured  out  at  Ellis  Island,  as  through 
the  small  end  of  a  funnel.  Back  to  the  sources 
is  hum.ane  and  wise.  The  expense  involved  could 
easily  be  met  by  an  increased  head  tax;  and  if 
not,  this  is  a  case  where  expense  in  money  is  not 
to  be  counted  in  comparison  with  the  country's 
welfare. 


Legislation  and  Distribution  loi 


These  are  mterestmsf  propositions.  Mr.  Whelp-  international 

■  ,    T>  T     T-.         ,     ,  ,  Regulation 

ley  agrees  with  Mr.  Brandenburg  as  to  the  neces- 
sity of  dealing  with  the  migrant  before  he  reaches 
port,  either  of  embarkation  or  disembarkation. 
He  says  our  laws  and  restrictions  are  severe,  and 
thoroughly  and  intelligently  enforced,  but  fall 
short  of  their  purpose  for  the  simple  reason  that 
there  is  little  or  no  control  over  the  source  of  sup- 
ply. "It  is  an  effort  to  beat  back  the  tide  after 
it  has  rolled  upon  the  shore,  and  in  the  vast  mul- 
titude of  arrivals  many  gain  entrance  legally 
whom  the  country  would  be  better  off  without."^ 
His  plan  is  to  have  an  international  regulation  of 
migration,  so  that  each  government  will  do  its 
part  to  check  the  present  conditions  and  regulate 
the  matter  at  its  starting  point. 

This  subject  of  legislation  is  confessedly  deli-  a  Higher 

.  .         .  .        .  standard 

cate  and  difficult.  The  diversity  of  opinion  is 
confusing.  Yet  we  cannot  escape  the  conviction 
that  the  present  immigration  is  altogether  too 
vast  for  the  good  of  the  country.  Suspension  is 
not  to  be  seriously  considered,  but  surely  it  could 
do  no  harm  to  make  the  laws  more  stringent,  to 
insist  upon  a  higher  physical  standard,  to  debar 
degenerates,  and  to  stop  at  any  cost  the  solicita- 
tion and  "assisted"  immigration  abuses  which 
have  caused  so  much  suffering  to  the  deceived 
and  excluded  victims  of  greed. 

'  J.  D.  Whelpley,  Tht  Problem  of  iki  Immigrant,  13. 


I02  Aliens  or  Americans? 


///.    The  Problem  of  Distribution 

No  phase  of  the  immigration  question  is 
receiving  more  attention  at  present  than  that  of 
distribution.  There  is  a  common  opinion  that  if 
the  proper  distribution  could  be  made,  the  chief 
evils  of  the  tremendous  influx  would  disappear. 
\Ve  are  told  that  it  is  the  congestion  of  aliens  in 
already  crowded  centers  of  population  that 
creates  the  menace  to  civilization ;  that  there  is 
land  enough  to  be  cultivated ;  and  that  vast  enter- 
prises are  under  way  calling  for  the  unskilled 
labor  that  is  coming  in;  But  the  puzzling  prob- 
lem is  how  to  get  the  immigrants  where  they  are 
wanted  and  needed,  and  can  be  of  value.  On 
this  point,  Mr.  Max  Mitchell,  Superintendent  of 
the  Federation  of  Jewish  Charities,  says : 

"The  problem  is  that  of  overcrowding.  We 
must  not  close  our  ports  to  the  people  of  the 
Old  World  who  seek  a  haven  and  a  home  in  the 
land  of  liberty  and  plenty,  but  we  must  see  to  it 
that  when  they  arrive  here  they  are  directed  out 
of  the  city  and  into  the  country  places  where 
ordinary  human  industry  is  rewarded  abundantly. 
The  inclination  of  the  immigrants  themselves  to 
stick  so  closely  to  the  great  centers  of  population 
must  be  overcome.  If  the  great  crowds  of  for- 
eigners that  inundate  these  shores  every  year  could 
be  distributed  in  a  sensible  and  logical  way  over 
all  the  vast  uncultivated  territory  m  which  this 


I 


Legislation  and  Distribution  103 


nation  is  so  rich,  we  should  never  hear  any  com- 
plaint of  too  much  immigration.  No  better 
farmers  can  be  found  anywhere  than  among  the 
foreign  peoples  who  seek  America." 

Very  likely,  but  the  trouble  is,  they  do  not  want 
to  farm  and  they  are  free  to  prefer  the  squalor 
of  the  slums  to  the  green  of  the  fields.  Nor  is 
there  much  hope  that  this  singular  but  strong 
inclination  can  be  overcome  save  by  government 
regulation,  which  shall  settle  the  matter  of  loca- 
tion for  those  who  have  no  specific  destination 
or  occupation.  It  is  probable  that  on  this  point 
some  reasonable  legislation  could  be  secured ; 
especially  if  the  various  distribution  societies  and 
railroad  companies  should  fail  in  their  efforts  to 
induce  the  aliens  to  go  where  they  are  needed. 
Commissioner-General  Sargent  has  dealt  plainly 
with  this  matter  in  his  Reports  for  the  last  three 
years,  and  rightly  estimates  its  importance.  He 
says  :i 

"In  my  judgment  the  smallest  part  of  the  duty 
to  be  discharged  in  successfully  handling  aliens, 
with  a  view  to  the  protection  of  the  people  and 
the  institutions  of  this  country,  is  that  part  now 
provided  for  by  law.  Its  importance,  though 
undeniable,  is  relatively  of  secondary  moment.  It 
cannot  compare  in  practical  value  with,  nor  can 
it  take  the  place  of,  measures  to  secure  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  many  thousands  who  come  in 


Legislation 
Required 


Distribution 
of  Prime 
Importance 


^Annual  Report  for  1903,  p.  60. 


104  Aliens  or  Americans? 


ignorance  of  the  industrial  needs  and  opportuni- 
ties of  this  country,  and  colonize  alien  communi- 


Infortnation 

Agencies 

Proposed 


A  Growing 
Evil 


Suitable  legislation  is  strongly  urged  to  estab- 
lish agencies  through  which,  either  with  or  with- 
out the  cooperation  of  the  states,  aliens  shall  be 
made  acquainted  with  the  resources  of  the  coun- 
try at  large,  and  the  industrial  needs  of  the 
various  sections,  in  both  skilled  and  unskilled 
labor,  the  cost  of  living,  the  wages  paid,  the 
price  and  capabilities  of  the  land,  the  character 
of  the  climates,  the  duration  of  the  seasons — 
in  short,  all  that  information  furnished  by  some 
of  the  great  railway  lines  through  whose  efforts 
the  territory  tributary-  thereto  has  been  trans- 
formed from  a  wilderness  within  a  few  years  to 
the  abiding  place  of  a  happy  and  prosperous 
population. 

"Again  the  importance  of  undertaking  to  dis- 
tribute aliens  now  congregating  in  our  large 
cities  to  those  parts  of  the  United  States  where 
they  can  secure  employment  without  displacing 
others  by  working  for  a  less  wage,  and  where 
the  conditions  of  existence  do  not  tend  to  the 
fostering  of  disease,  depravity,  and  resistance  to 
the  social  and  political  security  of  the  countr\% 
is  urged.  The  Bureau  is  convinced  that  no  fea- 
ture of  the  immigration  question  so  insistently 
demands  public  attention  and  effective  action. 
The  evil  to  be  removed  is  one  that  is  steadily  and 


Legislation  and  Distribution  105 


rapidly  on  the  increase,  and  its  removal  will 
strike  at  the  roots  of  fraudulent  elections,  pov- 
erty, disease,  and  crime  in  our  large  cities,  and 
on  the  other  hand  largely  supply  that  increasing 
demand  for  labor  to  develop  the  natural  resources 
of  our  country.  Too  much  encouragement  can- 
not be  given  to  the  reported  ef¥orts  of  certain  rail- 
way companies  to  divert  a  portion  of  the  tide 
of  immigration  to  the  Southern  states.  It  is 
impossible,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Bureau,  to  over- 
estimate the  importance  of  this  subject  as  bearing 
upon  the  effect  of  immigration  on  the  future  wel- 
fare of  this  country."! 
What  are  the  facts  concerning  the  present  loca-  '^^^^  °^ 

•     .         .  .        ~,  Distributioi 

tion  and  distribution  of  immigrants?  The 
answer  involves  a  most  interesting  study.  Tak- 
ing the  immigration  of  1905,  the  chart^  on  the 
next  page  illustrates  the  distribution  by  states. 

The  enormous  proportion  going  to  New  York,  where  the 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  North  Atlantic  section  '^^^"^ 
shows  prominently.  They  got  ninety  per  cent, 
of  the  whole,  while  the  South  received  but  four 
per  cent,  of  the  total,  and  only  one  per  cent,  of 
that  went  to  the  South  Central  States.  The 
Great  West  had  only  four  per  cent,  as  against 
five  the  year  preceding ;  showing  conclusively  how 
few  of  the  million  went  where  it  would  have  been 
far  better  for  the  entire  million  to  have  gone.  It 
is  safe  to  say  that  there  was  little  or  no  legiti- 

'  Annual  Report  for  1903,  p.  58.    *  Idem,  opposite  p.  34. 


io6 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Proportion  or  livirviiGRATiON  and  nun/iber  of 

IN/1IV11GRANTS  GOING  TO  EACH  STATE  DURING 
THE    FISCAL    YEAR    ENDING    JuNE  30.1905 


TOTAL  (.026.499 


Legislation  and  Distribution  107 


mate  demand  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  or 
New  England  for  any  of  them.  At  the  same 
time,  there  is  some  encouragement  in  the  fact 
that  the  distribution  of  the  past  fourteen  years 
shows  that  smaller  proportions  are  now  remain- 
ing in  the  states  in  which  are  located  the  princi- 
pal ports  of  entry.  For  example,  the  percentage 
of  New  York  State  has  steadily  decreased  from 
forty-two  per  cent,  in  1892  to  thirty  per  cent,  in 
1905.  Pennsylvania,  West  Virginia,  and  Ohio 
have  gained  proportionately. 

A  series  of  diagrams  which  show  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  foreign-born  living  in  the  United 
States  in  1900,  was  prepared  by  Mr.  F.  W. 
Hewes,  for  the  W orld's  Work,  and  published  in 
October,  1903.  By  the  courtesy  of  Doubleday, 
Page  and  Company,  publishers,  they  are  repro- 
duced. Each  dot  in  them  represents  a  thousand 
persons.  They  show  at  a  glance  where  the  immi- 
grants were  in  1900,  and  the  totals  by  race  or 
nationality.  By  adding  to  these  totals  the  remark- 
able figures  of  the  last  five  years,  one  can  appre- 
ciate the  great  increase  in  the  Italian  and  Slavic 
totals,  and  an  idea  of  the  present  situation  may 
be  obtained,  for  as  to  locality  the  percentages 
have  not  materially  changed. 

The  further  point  to  be  considered  as  to  dis- 
tribution is  the  effort  now  being  made  to  accom- 
plish desired  results.  In  lieu  of  legislation  or 
government  provision,  these  are  (i)  Societies 


Diagrams  to 
be  Studied 


Protective 
Societies 


I 


no 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


organized  by  individuals,  and  (2)  Railway  com- 
panies. The  Bureau  of  Information^  proposed 
by  the  bill  now  in  Congress  would,  if  established, 
closely  cooperate  with  the  state  agencies  and  all 
other  bodies  promoting  distribution. 
Italian  Society  One  of  the  most  active  and  efficient  of  these 
organizations,  which  will  serve  as  an  illustration, 
is  the  Society  for  Italian  Immigrants,  with  head- 
quarters in  New  York,  near  the  Battery.  The 
Society  thus  states  its  purpose  and  methods : 

"About  200,(X)0  Italian  immigrants  are  now 
landing  at  this  port  during  every  twelve  months. 
These  immigrants  are  almost  entirely  poor  peas- 
ants who  cannot  speak  our  language.  In  order 
that  these  people  may  get  a  fair  start  in  this  new 
and,  to  them,  strange  country,  and  that  they 
may  become  familiar  as  soon  as  possible  with  our 
laws,  habits,  and  customs,  help  and  instruction  of 
various  kinds  must  be  given  them.  To  furnish 
these  either  freely  or  at  the  lowest  possible  cost, 
is  the  object  of  The  Society  for  Italian  Immi- 
grants. 

se^ice  "Accordingly,  in  its  work  the  Society  employs 
agents  to  look  after  the  needs  of  the  immi- 
grants at  Ellis  Island ;  it  runs  an  escort  service, 
by  which  competent  persons  are  furnished,  at 

'This  bureau  shall  collect  and  furnish  to  all  incoming  aliens,  data 
as  to  the  resources,  products,  and  manufactures  of  each  state,  terri- 
tory and  district  of  the  United  States;  the  prices  of  land  and  char- 
acter of  soils;  routes  of  travel  and  fares;  opportunities  of  employ- 
ment in  the  skilled  and  unskilled  occupations  rates  of  wage's, 
cost  of  living,  and  all  ether  information  that  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Commissioner-General  might  tend  to  enlighten  the  aliens  as  to  the 
inducements  to  settlement  in  the  various  sections. 


Legislation  and  Distribution 


III 


nominal  cost,  to  take  immigrants  to  their  destina- 
tion ;  it  conducts  an  employment  agency ;  it  main- 
tains an  information  bureau ;  it  cooperates  with 
the  United  States  authorities  to  enforce  the 
Immigration  Laws ;  it  manages  labor  camps  for 
contractors ;  it  wages  war  on  all  persons  engaged 
in  swindling  immigrants ;  it  is  engaged  in  break- 
ing up  the  padrone  system  in  all  its  forms ;  and 
lastly  and  generally,  it  does  all  it  can  to  help 
immigrants,  so  that  as  soon  as  possible  they  may 
become  self-supporting  and  self-respecting  citi- 
zens, a  benefit  and  not  a  detriment  to  this 
country." 

The  Society  is  supported  by  voluntary  contri- 
butions, and  by  grants  to  the  amount  of  about 
$7,000  a  year  from  the  Italian  government. 
The  Society  has  met  with  the  approval  of  the 
police  department  of  the  city,  the  United  States 
authorities  at  Ellis  Island,  and  the  Italian  Royal 
Department  of  Emigration,  and  of  all  individuals 
who  have  made  themselves  familiar  with  what  it 
is  doing.  There  is  also  a  Boston  Italian  Society, 
organized  in  1902,  to  protect  newcomers  from 
sharpers,  thieves,  and  fraudulent  persons ;  also 
from  the  frauds  of  bankers  and  padrones.  The 
Italian  government  has  given  $1,000  a  year  to 
this  Society. 

A  similar  work  is  done  by  the  United  Hebrew 
Charities,  and  the  Removal  Bureau  established 


Grants  from 
Italian  Gov> 
ernment 


Hebrew  and 

other 

Societies 


I  by  the  Jews  in  New  York  in  1901. 


Through  this 


112  Aliens  or  Americans? 


agency  in  the  past  three  years  over  10,000  of  the 
Russian  or  Roumanian  Jews  have  been  kept  from 
increasing  the  overcrowded  population  of  the 
ghetto  and  swelling  the  sum  of  sweat-shop  misery. 
While  the  number  distributed  is  small  compared 
with  the  steady  inflow  (5,525  sent  out  in  1903, 
while  43,000  settled  in  New  York),  the  work 
bids  fair  to  make  itself  felt,  and  shows  an  appre- 
ciation by  the  Jews  already  here  of  the  situation 
and  the  necessity  of  changing  it,  for  the  sake 
both  of  the  immigrants  and  the  country.  Indus- 
trial removal  is  now  known  wherever  Jews  are 
found,  and  all  that  is  jwssible  is  being  done  to 
stimulate  artificial  distribution  as  the  remedy  for 
the  worst  evils  of  unassimilated  and  congested 
immigration.^  There  are  also  German,  Scandi- 
navian and  other  societies,  benevolent  and  protec- 
tive, which  aid  in  distribution. 
A  Chief  The  principal  difficulty  with  the  distribution 
Obstacle  g^^j^gj^g^  gQ  f^j.  ^g  most  of  the  prcscut-day  immi- 
grants are  concerned,  is  that  with  the  exception 
of  the  Italians  they  are  not  fitted  for  agriculture, 
while  it  is  the  farms  that  most  need  workers. 
Another  difficulty^  is  that  the  authorities  of  the 
various  states  object  to  receiving  shipments  of 
immigrants  from  the  city  tenement  districts, 
regarding  them  as  decidedly  undesirable  addi- 
tions to  the  population.     The  United  States 

'  Bemheimer,  The  Russian  Jew  in  tlie  United  Stales,  370. 
'  Prescott  F.  Hall,  Immigration,  303. 


Legislation  and  Distribution 


113 


Immigration  Investigating  Commission  asked  the 
governors  of  the  different  states  what  nationali- 
ties of  immigrants  they  desired,  and  in  only  two 
cases  was  any  desire  expressed  for  Slavs,  Latins, 
Jews,  or  Asiatics,  and  these  two  related  to  Italian 
farmers  with  money,  intending  to  become  perma- 
nent settlers.  The  officials  protest  against  the 
shipment  of  southern  and  eastern  Europeans 
from  the  city  slums  into  the  states.  Care  must 
be  taken,  too,  that  the  immigrants  do  not  settle 
in  country  colonies,  which  would  render  them 
almost  as  difficult  of  Americanization  as  though 
they  were  colonized  in  the  city. 

The  New  South  is  already  giving  object  lessons  what  the 
to  the  country  at  large  in  the  successful  attrac-  ° 
tion  and  utilization  of  the  alien  influx.  The  Four 
States  Immigration  League,  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives of  business  organizations  in  Alabama, 
Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  Texas,  was  organized 
in  1903  to  secure  desirable  immigrants  for  those 
states.  "It  was  keenly  realized,"  observed  the 
Chattanooga  Times,  "that  of  the  enormous  inflow 
from  the  old  country,  the  number  seeking  homes 
in  the  South  was  ridiculously  small  and  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  importance  of  the  country  and 
the  inducements  our  productive  fields  hold  out 
to  home  seekers."  An  Immigration  Bureau  has 
been  established  in  Chattanooga,  and  South  Caro- 
lina and  other  states  have  organized  active 
departments  of  agriculture  and  immigration. 


Ii6  Aliens  or  Americans? 


New  Zealand 
Plan 


Information 

Before 

Embarking 


The  leading  railway  lines  promise  active  cooper- 
ation, as  their  interests  lie  positively  in  this  direc- 
tion. Some,  indeed,  have  actively  engaged  in  the 
work  of  securing  distribution. 

The  suggestion  is  a  good  one  that  we  might 
study  with  profit,  in  this  connection,  the  methods 
of  New  Zealand.^  There  the  established  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  has  regarded  as  "its  vital  duty  the 
practical  task  of  finding  where  labor  was  wanted 
and  depositing  there  the  labor  running  elsewhere 
to  waste."  To  this  end  a  widely  extended  system 
of  agencies  is  maintained  for  bringing  workers 
and  work  together,  the  unemployed  are  scattered 
through  the  colony,  and  charity  is  refused.  The 
experience  there  shows  that  city  people  and  men 
of  trades  have  been  successful  as  farmers  and 
farm  workers.  Mr.  Lord  says:  "It  may  be  a 
novel  function  of  government  to  undertake  the 
distributing  of  labor,  but  it  is  none  the  less  more 
rational  than  an  edict  of  exclusion  would  be,  or 
the  tolerance  of  congestion  and  slums  now  is." 

One  thing  that  government  can  do  is  to  make 
sure  that  intending  immigrants  are  fully  in- 
formed, in  their  own  countries,  before  they  start, 
concerning  the  law^s  of  the  United  States,  the 
conditions  of  the  various  sections,  the  advantages 
and  drawbacks,  the  demand  for  labor  and  of 
what  kind.  An  official  bureau  of  correspondence 
and  information  would  help  check  undesirable 


'  Eliot  Lord,  in  The  Italian  in  America,  177  ff- 


Legislation  and  Distribution  117 


Not  Bars  but 
Guides 


immigrants  from  coming,  and  distribute  desirable 
ones  when  they  do  come. 

While  the  question  of  distribution  has  only  BHght" 
recently  been  taken  up  in  earnest,  its  importance  sida 
is  now  realized,  and  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  it  will  receive  henceforth  large  atten- 
tion, and  that  wise  measures  will  be  vigorously 
pushed.  Remedied  congestion  will  mean  in- 
creased assimilation  and  decreased  danger.  As 
we  review  the  situation,  while  there  is  much  in 
it  that  requires  serious  consideration  and  wise 
action,  we  agree  heartily  with  these  words  of 
Dr.  Charles  L.  Thompson : 

"There  is  no  need  of  becoming  pessimistic. 
Above  all  we  should  not  go  back  on  the  history 
of  our  country.  We  have  grown  great  by  assimi- 
lation. Let  us  have  a  dignified  confidence  in  the 
power  of  our  institutions  and  of  our  Christianity 
to  continue  the  process  which  has  developed  the 
strength  of  the  Republic.  If  we  are  true  to  our 
principles  we  will  be  equal  to  any  strain  that  may 
be  put  upon  them.  Only  let  us  see  to  it  that  our 
principles — both  civic  and  religious — are  at  work 
in  full  vigor  on  the  questions  which  the  floodtide 
of  immigration  raises.  What  we  need  is  not 
more  bars  to  keep  foreigners  out  but  more  labor- 
ers to  work  with  them  and  teach  them  how  to 
gather  the  harvest  of  American  and  Christian 
liberty."! 

*  "  The  Problem  of  Immisration,"  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication. 


Il8  Aliens  or  Americans? 

QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  III 

Aim:  To  Study  the  Problems  of  Legislation  and 
Distribution  Regarding  Aliens 

I.  The  Opinions  of  Capable  Observers  Regarding  Leg- 
islation. 

1.  Give  the  names  and  opinions  of  some  who 
favor  restriction  of  immigration.  Of  some  who 
are  opposed.    With  which  do  you  agree? 

2.  The  Immigration  Conference  of  1905 :  What 
was  it?    What  did  it  recommend? 

3.  As  to  free  admission :  What  are  the  rights 
of  the  government?    Of  the  individual? 

4.  What  does  President  Rooseveh  recommend? 

II.  Proposed  Legislation. 

5.  What  abuses  specially  need  to  be  corrected? 

6.  Name  the  chief  provisions  of  the  "Gardner 
Bill,"  before  Congress  in  1906. 

7.  *  Give  reasons  for  and  against  a  reading  test 

Would  you  have  voted  for  it  or  against? 

8.  Describe  and  give  your  opinion  of  other  pro- 
posed methods  of  restricting  immigration. 

9.  Would  it  be  possible  to  sift  immigrants  before 
they  leave  Europe? 

III.  Distribution. 

ID.    How  much  can  be  done  toward  a  wider  dis- 
tribution of  the  stream  of  immigrants? 

11.  Where  do  the  larger  numbers  now  settle?  In 
what  cities?    What  states? 

12.  What  Societies  are  helping  them  to  find  better 
locations  ? 

13.  What  special  efforts  are  being  made  by  some 
Southern  states? 

14.  How  does  New  Zealand  deal  with  this  ques- 
tion?   Can  we  copy  that  plan? 


Legislation  and  Distribution  119 

15.  *  What  spirit  is  needed   in   dealing  with  the 

whole  problem? 

16.  Can  you  tell  of  any  special  endeavors  to  bring 
about  better  control  or  direction  of  immigra- 
tion? 

References  for  Advanced  Study. — Chapter  III 
1.    Further  Study  of  Opinions  of  United  States  Immi- 
gration Officials. 

See  Commissioner-General's  Annual  Report,  fur- 
nished free  from  Washington  upon  application  to 
the  "Commissioner  of  Immigration."  Report  of 
1902,  pp.  59,  60.  Report  of  1904,  pp.  37-47,  123-136. 
Report  of  1904,  pp.  61-70.  Report  of  1905,  pp.  58, 
75-78. 

II.    Provisions  and  Fate  of  Legislation  of  1906  Pro- 
posed in  Congress. 

Text  of  "Gardner  Bill"  and  Journal  of  the  House 
for  June  25,  1906,  can  be  secured  by  writing  to 
Washington. 

III.  Eznls  of  Undistributed  Immigration. 
Warne :  The  Slav  Invasion,  IV,  V. 
Hunter :  Poverty,  VI. 

Lord,  et  al :  The  Italian  in  America,  IV,  X. 

IV.  Efforts  to  Secure  Wider  Distribution  of  Immi- 
grants. 

Hall :  Immigration,  XIII. 

Lord,  et  al:  The  Italian  in  America,  VII,  IX. 


To  know  anything  about  the  actual 
character  of  recent  and  present  immigra- 
tion, we  must  distinguish  the  many  and 
very  diverse  elements  of  which  it  is 
composed. — Samuel  McLanahan. 


IV 

THE  NEW  IMMIGRATION 


121 


The  world  never  before  saw  anything  comparable  to 
this  tremendous  movement  of  people  in  so  short  a  space 
of  time.  The  population  Europe  has  lost  in  a  hundred 
years  is  greater  than  the  total  number  of  inhabitants 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in  i860,  and  only  a  little 
less  than  that  of  the  United  States  in  the  same  year. 
It  is  equal  to  three  fifths  of  the  total  population  of 
Europe  in  the  time  of  Augustus  Qesar.  If  the  ships 
carried  five  hundred  passengers  on  the  average,  about 
fifty  thousand  trips  have  been  made  in  the  transfer. 

Emphatically  too  many  people  are  now  coming  over 
here;  too  many  of  an  undesirable  sort.  In  1902  over 
seven  tenths  were  from  races  who  do  not  rapidly  assimi- 
late with  the  customs  and  institutions  of  this  country. 
—Prescott  F.  Hall. 

There  are  two  classes  w^ho  would  pass  upon  the  immi- 
gration question.  One  says,  "Close  the  doors  and  let  in 
nobody;"  and  the  other  says,  "Open  wide  the  doors  and 
let  in  everybody."  I  am  in  sympathy  with  neither  of 
these  classes.  There  is  a  happy  middle  path — a  path 
of  discernment  and  judgment. — Commissioner  Robert 
Watchorn  of  New  York. 

Just  as  a  body  cannot  with  safety  accept  nourishment 
any  faster  than  it  is  capable  of  assimilating  it,  so  a 
state  cannot  accept  an  excessive  influx  of  people  without 
serious  injury. — H.  H.  Boyesen. 

It  seems  to  me  our  only  concern  about  immigration 
should  be  as  to  its  character.  We  do  not  want  Europe's 
criminals  or  paupers.  The  time  to  make  selection  is  in 
Europe,  prior  to  embarkation. — United  States  Senator 
Hansbrough. 


IV 


THE  NEW  IMMIGR.\TION 


/.  N'czv  Peoples  and  Nezv  Problems 
00  great  has  been  the  change  in  the  racial  char- 
acter  of  immigration  within  the  last  ten  years 
that  the  term  "new  immigration"  has  been  used 
to  distinguish  the  present  prevailing  type  from 
that  of  former  years.  By  new  immigration  we 
mean  broadly  all  the  aliens  from  southeastern 
Europe— the  Italians,  Flungarians,  Slavs,  He- 
brews, Greeks,  and  Syrians — as  distinguished 
from  the  northwestern  Europeans — the  English, 
Scotch,  Welsh,  Irish,  French,  Germans,  and 
Scandinavians.  The  ethnic  authorities  at  Wash- 
ington make  the  following  racial  division,  which 
is  iised  in  the  official  reports : 

"Ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  immigration  to  this 
country  comes  from  Europe.  Most  of  these  dif- 
ferent races  or  peoples,  or  more  properly  sub- 
divisions of  race,  coming  from  Europe  have  been 
grouped  into  four  grand  divisions,  as  follows : 

"Teutonic  division,  from  northern  Europe :  German, 
Scandinavian,  English,  Dutch,  Flemish,  and  Finnish. 

"Iberic  division,  from  southern  Europe :  South  Italian, 
Greek,  Portuguese,  and  Spanish :  also  Syrian  from 
Turkey  in  Asia. 

"Celtic  division,  from  western  Europe :  Irish,  Welsh, 
Scotch,  French,  and  North  Italian. 

123 


Change  of 
Racial  Type 


Race 

Classification 


124  Aliens  or  Americans.^ 


"Slavic  division,  from  eastern  Europe:  Bohemian, 
Moravian,  Bulgarian,  Servian,  Montenegrin,  Croatian, 
Slovenian,  Dalmatian,  Bosnian,  Herzegovinian,  Hebrew, 
Lithuanian,  Polish,  Roumanian,  Russian,  Ruthenian,  and 
Slovak. 

"The  Mongolia  division  has  also  been  added,  to  in- 
clude Chinese,  Japanese,  Korean,  East  Indian,  Pacific 
Islander,  and  Filipino. 

"Under  'all  others'  have  been  included  Magj'ar,  Turk- 
ish, Armenian,  African  (black),  and  subdivisions  native 
to  the  Western  Hemisphere." 

This  new  immigration  has  been  commonly 
regarded  as  either  decidedly  undesirable  or  at 
least  distinctly  less  desirable  than  the  Teutonic 
and  Celtic,  which  for  so  many  years  practically 
had  the  field  of  America  to  itself.  It  has  not  been 
uncommon  to  group  the  Italians  and  Slavs,  and 
denominate  them  as  the  "offscouring  and  refuse 
of  Europe,"  now  dumped  into  America,  which  is 
described  as  a  sort  of  world  "garbage  bin." 
Extremists  have  drawn  in  gloomy  colors  the 
effects  of  this  inrush  of  the  worst  and  most 
illiterate  and  unassimilable  elements  of  the  Old 
World.  A  distinct  prejudice  has  undoubtedly 
been  created  against  these  later  comers. 

There  is  unquestionably  some  ground  for  the 
feeling  that  the  new  immigration  is  in  many 
respects  less  desirable  than  the  older  type.  These 
peoples  come  out  of  conditions  of  oppression  and 
depression,  illiteracy  and  poverty.  Far  more 
important  than  this,  they  have  had  no  contact 


The  New  Immigration 


I 


^  en 

CD 


til 


3 


I 


A77yd/Mll/d  JU.TJO     AllVdliNiyd  MV7P 


126 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


with  Anglo-Saxon  ideas  or  government.  They 
are  consequently  almost  wholly  ignorant  of 
American  ideals  and  standards.  There  is  a  vast 
difference  between  the  common  ideas  of  these 
immigrants  and  those  from  the  more  enlightened 
and  progressive  northern  nations.  So  there  is 
in  the  type  of  character  and  the  customs  and 
manners. 

The  Older        -^y^         sufficiently  familiar  with  the  older 

Type  of 

immifrration  type,  and  do  not  need  here  to  dwell  upon 
it.  We  know  how  large  a  part  has  been  played 
in  the  development  of  our  national  material  enter- 
prises by  the  Germans,  the  English  and  Irish, 
the  Scotch  and  Welsh,  the  Swedes  and  Nor- 
wegians. Millions  of  them  are  among  the  loyal 
Americans  of  to-day.  The  Irish  originally  came 
to  perform  the  unskilled  labor  of  America. 
Their  women  made  the  domestics,  and  many  of 
them  still  rule  the  American  kitchen.  But  the 
Irish  men  have  moved  up,  into  bosses  and  con- 
tractors, into  the  stores  and  trades  and  profes- 
sions, and  especially  into  politics,  until  they  prac- 
tically run  the  cities  and  have  a  lion's  share  of  the 
governmental  positions.  The  Germans  have  \ 
always  been  among  the  best  of  our  immigrant 
population  in  intelligence,  thrift,  and  other  quali- 
ties that  make  the  German  nation  strong  and ' 
stable.  They  have  Germanized  us  more  than  we 
have  Americanized  them.  The  Scandinavians 
have  with  excellent  judgment  distributed  them- 


The  New  Immigration  127 


selves  and  gone  largely  into  agriculture.  All 
these  north  of  Europe  peoples  belong  to  a  com- 
mon inheritance  of  principles  and  ideas,  and  all 
have  found  it  natural  to  assimilate  into  American 
life.  America  owes  a  large  debt  to  them,  as  they 
do  to  the  land  that  has  become  their  own  by 
adoption. 

But  what  can  be  said  about  this  new  immigra-  Necessity  of 

.     „.        ,  ,  r        ,  .  Discrimina- 

tion?   First  let  us  see  how  great  the  change  m  ^^on 

racial  character  has  been,  and  then  diflferentiate 
these  new  races.  It  will  not  do  to  brand  any  race 
as  a  whole.  Discrimination  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary if  we  are  to  deal  with  this  subject  practically 
and  justly.  There  are  Italians  and  Italians, 
Slavs  and  Slavs,  just  as  there  are  all  sorts  of 
Irish,  Germans,  and  Americans.  No  race  has  a 
monopoly  of  either  virtue  or  vice.  This  table 
will  help  us  to  differentiate  the  millions  of  immi- 
grants since  1820  as  to  race : 

Netherlands   146,168      Gennany   5.187.092 

France   428,894      United  Kingdom,  Great  Bri- 

Switzerland   220,199         tain  and  Ireland   7,286,434 

Denmark,  Norway,  and  Russia   1,452,629 

Sweden   1,730,722      Countries  not  speciHed   2,130,756 

Italy   2,000,252      China   288,398 

Japan   8a  908 

To  appreciate  the  significance  of  these  figures,  Remarkable 
it  must  be  remembered  that  while  the  totals  from  ^'^''^""^ 
the  United  Kingdom  and  Germany  amount  to 
nearly  twelve  and  a  half  millions,  or  considerably 
more  than  one  half  of  the  entire  immigration 
down  to  1905,  the  proportions  have  been  rapidly 


128 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


changing.  The  immigration  from  the  United 
Kingdom,  for  example,  reached  its  highest  point 
in  185 1,  when  the  total  was  272,740,  predomi- 
nantly from  Ireland.  The  German  immigration 
reached  high  mark  in  1887,  the  total  being  250,- 
630.  On  the  other  hand,  the  immigration  from 
Italy  did  not  reach  10,000  until  1880,  and  passed 
the  100,000  mark  first  in  1900.  In  the  past  five 
years  nearly  a  million  Italians — or  one  half  of 
the  entire  Italian  immigration — have  entered  the 
country,  and  the  number  in  1906  promises  to 
exceed  a  quarter  of  a  million  more.  The  highest 
mark  was  233,546  in  1903 ;  but  even  this  did  not 
equal  the  birth-rate  in  Italy.  In  Hungary-  and 
Russia,  also,  the  birth-rate  is  greater  than  the 
immense  drain  of  immigration,  so  that  this  stream 
will  continue  to  flow  and  increase,  unless  some 
check  is  put  upon  it,  or  some  legislative  dam 
built.  The  immigration  from  Russia,  consisting 
chiefly  of  Jews,  did  not  become  appreciable  until 
1887,  when  it  reached  30,766.  It  passed  100,000 
in  1902 ;  and  from  1900  to  1905  the  total  arrivals 
were  748,522,  or  just  about  one  half  the  entire 
number  of  Jews  in  the  United  States.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  Hungarian  and  Slav  immigration. 
Its  prominence  has  come  since  1890. 
The  Inferior  The  point  of  importance  to  be  considered 
Superior^*  is  that  as  the  immigration  from  southeastern 
Europe  has  increased,  that  from  northwestern 
Europe  has  decreased.    In  1869  not  one  per 


The  New  Immigration  129 


cent,  of  the  total  immigration  came  from  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, Italy,  Poland,  and  Russia,  while 
in  1902  the  percentage  was  over  seventy.  In 
1869  nearly  three  quarters  of  the  total  immigra- 
tion came  from  the  United  Kingdom,  France, 
Germany,  and  Scandinavia ;  in  1902  only  one  fifth 
was  from  those  countries.  The  proportion  has 
held  nearly  the  same  since. 

The  change  is  indicated  most  plainly  in  this 
table,  which  compares  the  total  immigration  of 
certain  nationalities  for  the  period  1821  to  1902 
with  that  for  the  year  1903 : 

1821  to  1902  1903 


Country  Number  Per  cent  Number  Per  eent 

AuBtria-Hungary   1,316,914  6.S  206,011  24.00 

England,  Wales.   2,730,037  13.4  26,219  3.1 

Germany   5,098,005  25.0  40,086  4.7 

Ireland   4944,269  19.3  35,300  4.1 

Italy   1,358,507  6.7  230,622  26.9 

Norway,  Sweden   1,334,931  6.5  70,489  8.2 

Ru«ia,  Poland   1,106,362  5.4  136,093  15.9 


This  table  shows  not  only  the  nations  which 
have  added  chiefly  to  our  population  in  the  past, 
and  which  are  adding  to-day,  but  how  the  per- 
centage of  each  has  varied  in  the  period  before 
1903  compared  with  1903.  Mr.  Hall  says:  "If 
the  same  proportions  had  obtained  in  the  earlier 
period  as  during  the  later  how  different  might 
our  country  and  its  institutions  now  be !" 

This  brings  up  the  question  of  type,  of  char-  The  Problem 
acter,  and  of  homogeneity.    The  new  immigra-  Race  stocks 
tion  introduces  new  problems.    The  older  immi- 
gration, before  1870,  was  chiefly  composed  of 


Change  in 

Source 


I30 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


races  kindred  in  habits,  institutions,  and  tradi- 
tions to  the  original  colonist.^  To-day  we  face 
decidedly  different  conditions.  At  the  same  time 
study  of  these  comparatively  unknown  races  will 
bring  us  many  surprises,  and  knowledge  of  the 
facts  is  the  only  remedy  for  prejudice  and  the 
only  basis  for  constructive  Qiristian  work.  We 
must  know  something,  moreover,  of  the  Old 
World  environment  before  we  can  judge  of  the 
probable  development  of  these  peoples  in  Amer- 
ica, or  learn  the  way  of  readiest  access  to  them. 
For  they  will  not  become  Americanized  unless 
they  are  in  some  warv-  reached  by  Americans ;  and 
they  will  never  be  reached  until  they  are  under- 
stood. 

//.    Th-e  Italians 

Extremes  of  In  ouf  morc  detailed  study  of  the  new  immi- 
opinion  gration  we  take  first  the  Italians,  who  are  seen 
wherever  one  turns  in  our  cities,  and  are  f)erhaps 
the  most  conspicuous  of  the  immigrants.  Here 
we  come  at  once  upon  two  extremes  of  opinion. 
One  extreme  finds  little  or  nothing  that  is  favor- 
able to  the  Italians,  who  are  classed  all  together 
and  judged  in  the  light  of  the  ^lafia,  or  "black 
hand,"  ready  for  all  deeds  of  darkness.  The 
other  lauds  these  aliens  so  highly  that  an  Italian 

'For  a  condensed  characterization  of  the  north  of  Europe  immi- 
grants read  the  chapter  on  Racial  Conditions  in  Immigration  (chap. 
III.)  The  leading  traits  of  the  various  immigrant  peoples  are 
set  forth  with  fairness  and  discrimination,  although  probably  none 
of  those  described  would  see  themselves  exactly  as  Mr.  Hall  sees 
them. 


The  New  Immigration  131 


himself  said  to  the  writer,  referring  to  a  recent 
book  about  his  people  in  America  :i  "I  suppose 
I  ought  to  be  glad  to  have  us  all  made  out  to  be 
saints,  but  I  am  afraid  there  is  another  side  to 
the  story."  We  shall  hope  to  find  the  truth 
between  these  extremes.  This  has  to  be  admitted, 
on  the  start,  that  in  most  cases  those  who  have 
most  to  do  with  the  Italians,  of  whatever  class, 
become  warmly  interested  in  them,  and  believe 
both  in  their  ability  and  in  their  adaptability  to 
American  life. 

When  so  keen  a  writer  as  Emil  Reich,  in  dis-  a  Gifted  Race 
cussing  "The  Future  of  the  Latin  Races,"  in  the 
Contemporary  Revieiv,  says,  "there  can  be  little 
doubt  tliat  the  Italians  are  the  most  gifted  nation 
in  Europe,"  we  see  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  class 
all  Italians  as  alike  and  put  them  under  the  ban 
of  contempt  as  "dagoes."  They  differ  from 
one  another  almost  as  much  as  men  can  differ 
who  are  still  of  the  same  color,  says  a  recent 
writer.2 

Most  northern  Italians  are  of  tlie  Alpine  Marked 
race  and  have  short,  broad  skulls ;  southern  Ital-  Betwee 
ians  are  of  the  Mediterranean  race  and  have  long.  North  and 
narrow  skulls.    Between  the  two  lies  a  broad 
strip  of  country,  peopled  by  those  of  mixed  blood. 
In  appearance  the  Italians  may  be  anything  from 
a  tow-headed  Teuton  to  a  swarthy  Arab.  Vary- 
ing with  the  district  from  which  he  comes,  in 

^The  Italian  in  America.  'John  Foster  Caxr  in  Outlook. 


132  Aliens  or  Americans? 


manner  he  may  be  rough  and  boisterous ;  suave, 
fluent,  and  gesticulative ;  or  grave  and  silent. 
These  differences  extend  to  the  very  essentials 
of  life.  The  provinces  of  Italy  are  radically 
unlike,  not  only  in  dress,  cookery,  and  customs, 
but  in  character,  thought,  and  speech.  A  distinct 
change  of  dialect  is  often  found  in  a  morning's 
walk.  An  ignorant  \'altellinese  from  the  moun- 
tains of  the  north,  and  an  ignorant  Neapolitan 
have  as  yet  no  means  of  understanding  each 
other ;  and  what  is  yet  more  remarkable,  the 
speech  of  the  unschooled  peasant  of  Genoa  is 
unintelligible  to  his  fellow  of  Piedmont,  who 
lives  less  than  one  hundred  miles  away. 

The  northern  Italian  is  the  result  of  a  superior 
environment.  His  section  is  more  prosperous, 
intelligent,  orderly,  and  modem.  The  industrially 
progressive,  democratic  north  presents  a  striking 
contrast  to  the  industrially  stagnant,  feudal  south. 
The  northern  division  is  full  of  the  spirit  of  the 
new  Italy,  and  its  people  are  less  prone  to  leave 
home.  Central  Italy,  too,  is  making  steady 
advances  in  agriculture  and  education,  and  the 
peasant  farmer  is  a  stay-at-home.  In  southern 
Italy  agriculture  is  practically  the  sole  reliance 
of  the  people,  the  lot  of  tlie  day  laborers  is 
wretched,  and  the  failure  of  a  wheat  crop  is  as 
disastrous  as  the  potato  famine  in  Ireland  was  to 
the  Irish  in  1847.  United  Italy  is  undoubtedly 
making  progress  in  education  and  industry,  the 


The  New  Immigration  133 


standards  of  living  are  rising,  and  the  money  sent 
or  carried  back  to  Italy  from  America  has  helped 
to  some  degree  in  this  advancement.  Religiously, 
of  course,  the  domination  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  continues  over  all  Italy,  and  in  illiteracy 
as  in  other  respects  Italy  is  an  example  of  what 
this  ecclesiastical  rule  means  where  it  has  power 
over  the  people  sufficient  to  enable  it  to  work  its 
will. 

In  view  of  these  facts  regarding  the  home  common 

.  1       .       .,,  Poverty  of  the 

environment  and  diiference  m  peoples,  it  will  not  peasants 
do,  evidently,  to  use  sweeping  generalizations,  or 
to  regard  the  organ-grinder  and  fruit-peddler 
as  the  representatives  of  Italy  in  America.  We 
receive  all  grades,  from  cultured  professionals  to 
illiterate  peasants,  though  mainly,  of  course,  the 
peasant  class.  The  one  common  feature  of  the 
Italian  provinces  is  the  poverty  produced  by  the 
crushing  taxes  and  agricultural  depression. 
Absentee  landlordism  has  blighted  southern 
Italy  as  it  has  Ireland.  Yet  with  great  tracts  of 
fertile  soil  thus  held  away  from  the  people,  and 
with  no  new  territory  to  cultivate,  the  population 
of  Italy  has  increased  within  twenty  years  from 
twenty-eight  and  a  half  to  thirty-two  and  a  half 
millions,  an  average  density  of  301  per  square 
mile,  and  the  excess  of  births  over  deaths 
amounts  to  nearly  350,000  a  year.  Hence  the 
question  with  the  people  in  overcrowded  districts 
is  simply  emigration  or  starvation.   The  southern 


134  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Italian  is  driven  from  home  by  necessity  to  work, 
and  work  is  to  be  found  in  America,  so  he  comes. 
His  labor  is  mostly  unskilled,  and  this  is  in 
demand  here.  The  result  is  that  almost  eighty 
per  cent,  of  the  Italian  immigrants  are  males ; 
over  eighty  per  cent,  are  between  fourteen  and 
forty-five,  the  working  age ;  over  eighty  per  cent, 
are  from  the  southern  provinces,  and  nearly  the 
same  percentage  are  unskilled  laborers,  and  a 
large  majority  of  these  are  illiterates.  The  eighty 
per  cent,  of  "human  capital  of  fresh,  strong 
young  men"  is  Italy's  contribution  to  America, 
and  is  a  force  winning  its  way  to  recognition. 
Figures  of  ug  j^Q^g  ^j^g  growth  of  Italian  immigration, 

Italian  Immi-     .  t        i  • 

gration  its  sourccs,  and  its  distribution.    In  the  sixty 

years  from  1820  to  1880  only  68,633  Italians 
made  their  way  to  America,  while  during  this 
period  the  total  foreign  immigration  was  over 
ten  millions.  The  census  of  1890  gave  the  Italian 
population  of  the  United  States  as  only  182,580, 
and  at  that  date  not  over  a  half  million  in  all  had 
come  here.  The  rapid  increase  during  recent 
years  is  shown  in  the  following  table : 

IMMIGRATION  FROM  ITALY  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES 

1890   52.003  1S98    58.613 

1891   76.055  1899    77.419 

1892    61.631  1900   100.135 

1893   72.145  1901   135.996 

1894    42.977  1902   178.375 

1895   35.427      1903    230.622 

1896   68.060      1904   193,296 

1897   59.431      1905    221.479 


The  New  Immigration  135 


This  shows  how  steady  and  remarkable  the 
immigration  has  been  since  1900.  In  five  years 
959,768  Italians  have  come  to  this  country. 
Surely  it  is  worth  our  while  to  know  more  par- 
ticularly the  character  of  this  million  and  their 
promise  as  an  element  in  our  civilization.  Thou- 
sands of  them  are  "birds  of  passage" — that  is, 
they  come  and  go,  earning  money  here  and  going 
back  home  to  spend  it  and  then  returning  to  earn 
more ;  but  tens  of  thousands  come  to  stay,  and 
will  play  their  part  in  shaping  our  future. 

The  distribution  of  the  Italians  is  shown 
partially  in  the  accompanying  diagram.^  This, 
however,  is  based  upon  the  Census  of  1900,  and 
does  not  account  for  the  million  arrivals  since 
1900.  The  destination  clause  in  the  immigrant's 
manifesto  gives  light  upon  the  matter  of  distribu- 
tion, although  the  incomer  does  not  always  get 
to  the  point  named  in  his  papers.  From  the  offi- 
cial report  for  1905  these  results  are  drawn: 

North  South 

Locality  Italian  Italian  Total 

New  York   9,733  81.572  91.305 

New  Jersey   1.272  11.494  12.766 

Pennsylvania   7,554  43,078  50,632 

Connecticut   1.626  5.835  7.461 

MaisachuBetts   2.011  11.747  13.758 

Rhode  Island   196  2.422  2.618 

lUinola   3.663  6,685  10,348 

Ohio   861  6,230  7.091 

Michigan   1,330  1,649  2,979 

West  Virginia   421  2,987  3,408 

Louisiana   177  2,631  2,808 

Missouri   769  1,477  2,246 

Mississippi   674  213  887 

Eight  Southern  States   467  1.036  1,503 

Oalifomia   4.513  1,081  5.594 

Colorado   824  881  1,705 

■See  page  146. 


Remarkable 
Increase 


Distribution  of 
Italians 


I 


13^  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Largely  in 
Cities 


Italians 
and  Irish 
Compared 


It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  least  one  Italian 
immigrant  was  destined  to  everj-  state  and  terri- 
tory. Of  the  total  Italian  population  in  this 
country-  in  1900,  62.4  per  cent,  was  in  the  160 
principal  cities,  and  nearly  one  half  in  New  York 
alone.  The  percentage  of  Italians  attracted  to 
the  cities  is  about  the  same  as  that  of  the  Irish. 

An  interesting  parallel,  indeed,  may  be  drawn 
between  these  races.  The  Italians  to-day  occupy 
largely  the  place  occupied  by  the  Irish  of  yester- 
day. The  Irish  came  in  the  earlier  years  by 
reason  of  distressing  conditions  at  home,  forc- 
ing them  to  seek  a  living  elsewhere ;  this  is  now 
true  of  the  Italians.  The  Irish  were  chiefly  peas- 
ants, unskilled  laborers  and  illiterate ;  so  are 
the  Italians.  The  Irish  came  mainly  from  agri- 
cultural sections  and  herded  in  the  great  cities ; 
so  do  the  Italians.  The  handy  weapon  of  the 
Irish  was  the  shillalah,  that  of  the  Italian  is  the 
stiletto.  The  Irish  found  ready  emplo}Tnent  by 
reason  of  the  demand  for  cheap  unskilled  labor 
created  by  the  vast  material  enterprises  of  a 
swiftly  developing  country,  with  cities  and  towns 
and  railroads  to  build ;  this  work  is  done  by  the 
Italians  now,  and  they  are  commonly  conceded  to 
be  in  many  respects  better  at  the  job.  Here  is  a 
sample  of  the  kind  of  testimony  frequently  given 
concerning  them  as  workers:^ 

"I  have  learned  to  be  cautious  in  comparing 


'Dr.  S.  H.  Lee  in  Baptist  Home  Mission  Monthly,  for  May,  1905. 


The  New  Immigration  137 


races.  I  find  good,  bad,  and  indifferent  people  in  Good  vvoricers 
all  races.  But  I  dissent  from  the  current  notion 
that  the  southern  Italian  is  so  much  inferior  to 
the  northern.  As  a  people  there  is  more  illiteracy 
among  them ;  but  when  he  goes  to  school  the 
southern  Italian  holds  his  own  with  the  northern. 
Another  fact  of  promise  is  that  Italians  have  not 
lost  the  spirit  of  service.  They  are  good  work- 
men. Not  long  since,  asking  a  contractor  who 
was  building  a  sewer  in  the  city  why  he  had  only 
Italians  in  his  employ,  he  replied,  'Because  they 
are  the  best  workmen,  and  there  are  enough  of 
them.  If  an  Italian  down  in  that  ditch  has  a 
shovelful  of  earth  half  way  up  when  the  whistle 
blows  for  dinner,  he  will  not  drop  it;  he  will 
throw  it  up ;  the  Irishman  and  the  French-Cana- 
dian will  drop  it.  And  when  the  lunch  hour  is 
over,  when  the  clock  strikes  the  Italian  will  be 
leaning  on  his  shovel  ready  to  go  to  work,  but 
the  Irishman  will  be  out  under  that  tree  and  he 
will  be  three  minutes  getting  to  his  job,  and 
three  minutes  each,  for  150  men,  is  not  a  small 
item.'  The  Italian  does  not  regard  his  employer 
as  his  natural  enemy.  He  has  the  spirit  of  kindly 
service." 

The  writer  can  confirm  this  from  personal  cheerful  and 
observation.    The  Italians  are  cheerful  workers, 
and  on  hand  ten  to  fifteen  minutes  before  the 
hour  to  begin  work.    They  relish  a  kind  word, 
and  can  give  lessons  in  politeness  to  many  an 


I 


138  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Flower  of  the 
Peasantry 


Demand  for 

Unskilled 

l^abor 


American-born.  Ask  anyone  brought  in  contact 
with  them  and  you  will  get  the  same  testimony. 

According  to  Adolfo  Rossi,  Supervisor  of  the 
Italian  Immigration  Department,  who  is  deeply 
interested  in  the  proper  distribution  and  welfare 
of  his  countrymen  in  America,  these  immigrants 
are  the  flower  of  the  laboring  class  of  Italy, 
Economically  they  are  doubtless  of  value  at  so 
many  dollars  per  head.  But  of  far  more  impor- 
tance is  the  question,  what  are  they  in  the  social 
fabric?  If,  as  some  assert,  the  Italian  race  stock 
is  inferior  and  degraded,  if  it  will  not  assimilate 
naturally  with  the  American,  or  will  tend  to  lower 
our  standards,  then  it  is  undesirable,  even  though 
the  immigrant  had  a  bank  account  in  addition  to 
his  sturdy  body.  The  further  one  investigates  the 
subject,  the  less  likely  is  he  to  conclude  that  the 
Italian  is  to  be  adjudged  undesirable,  as  a  race. 
He  must  be  judged  individually  on  his  merits. 

Mr.  Carr  draws  a  decidedly  favorable  picture 
of  the  Italians,  whether  from  north  or  south.  He 
says  that  immediate  work  and  high  wages,  and 
not  a  love  for  the  tenement,  create  our  "Little 
Italics."  The  great  enterprises  in  progress  in 
and  about  the  city,  the  subway,  tunnels,  water- 
works, railroad  construction,  as  well  as  the  ordi- 
nary building  operations,  call  for  a  vast  army  of 
laborers.  It  is  the  educated  Italian  immigrant 
without  a  manual  trade  who  fails  in  America. 
The  illiterate  laborer  takes  no  chances.  The 


The  New  Immigration 


139 


migratory  laborer — for  more  than  98,000  ItaHans 
went  back  to  Italy  in  1903,  and  134,000  in  1904 — 
confers  an  industrial  blessing  by  his  very  mobil- 
ity. Then,  in  his  opinion,  there  is  something  to 
be  said  for  the  illiterates  who  remain  here.  They 
are  never  anarchists ;  they  are  guiltless  of  the 
so-called  "black  hand"  letters.  The  individual 
laborer  is,  in  fact,  rarely  anything  but  a  gentle 
and  often  a  rather  dull  drudge.  More  than  this, 
our  school  system  deprives  us  of  unskilled  labor-  ^ 
ers.  The  gangs  that  dig  sewers  and  subways  and 
build  railways  are  recruited  from  the  illiter- 
ate or  nearly  so,  and  for  our  supply  of  the  lower 
grades  of  labor  we  must  depend  upon  countries 
with  a  poorer  school  system  than  ours. 

Concerning  the  charge  that  the  Italian  is  a  Favorable 
degenerate,  lazy  and  a  pauper,  half  a  criminal,  companso 
a  menace  to  our  civilization,  it  is  shown  that  in 
New  York  the  Italians  number  about  450,000, 
the  Irish  over  300,000.  In  males  the  Italians  out- 
number the  Irish  two  to  one.  Consider  these 
facts :  In  1904  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
sixty-four  Irish,  and  only  sixteen  Italians,  were 
admitted  to  the  almshouse  on  Blackwell's  Island.^ 
Mr.  James  Forbes,  chief  of  the  Mendicancy 
Department  of  the  Qiarity  Organization  Soci- 
ety, says  he  has  never  seen  or  heard  of  an  Italian 
tramp.  In  reply  to  this,  those  who  dislike  the 
Italians  say  that  their  cheap  labor  has  made 

*  Location  of  various  public  institutions  of  New  York  City. 


1 


140  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Italians  Not 
Beggars 


Few  Insane 


tramps  of  many  who  would  otherwi3e  be  em- 
ployed. As  for  begging,  between  July  i,  1904, 
and  September  30,  1905,  the  Mendicancy  Police 
in  New  York  took  into  custody  519  Irish  and 
only  92  Italians.  This  table  will  be  found  inter- 
esting : 

NATIVITY  OF  PERSONS  ADMITTED  TO  ALMSHOUSE  (NEW  YORK)  IN 
1900 

Male       Female  Total 

United  States   355  199  554 

Ireland   808  809  1,617 

England  and  Wales   Ill  87  198 

Scotland   25  14  39 

France   19  2  21 

Gennany   290  84  374 

Norway,  Sweden  and  Denmark   22  6  28 

Italy    15  4  19 

Other  Countries   50  36  86 

1,695        1,241  2,936 

This  ought  to  correct  some  ideas  as  to  where 
the  pauperism  comes  from.  Certainly  the  Ital- 
ians are  not  to  be  charged  with  it.  Conditions 
in  Boston  show  equally  well  for  the  Italians.  The 
proportions  for  the  whole  countn,'  also  give  tliera 
a  remarkably  low  degree  as  compared  with  other 
races. 

As  to  insanity,  the  figures  tell  their  own  story : 
In  the  charitable  institutions  of  the  countr}-,  there 
were  of  the  insane :  Irish,  5,943  ;  Germans,  4.408 ; 
English,  1,822;  Scandinavians,  1,985;  and  Ital- 
ians, 718.  As  shown  by  the  analysis  of  the 
Bureau  of  Immigration,  the  proportion  of  Irish 
in  the  charitable  institutions  is  30  per  cent.,  of 
Germans  19,  of  English  8.5,  while  the  Italians 
and  Hebrews  are  each  8  per  cent. 


The  New  Immigration 


141 


The  important  point  of  crime  remains  to  be 
considered.  Here  the  Italian  is  commonly  rated 
very  high,  by  reason  of  the  violent  and  conspicu- 
ous nature  of  most  of  his  crimes,  which  are 
against  the  person.  We  hear  of  the  brutal  mur- 
ders, the  threats  of  the  Mafia,  the  secret  assassi- 
nations, and  frequent  sanguinary  stiletto  affrays, 
and  are  apt  to  regard  the  whole  race  as  quarrel- 
some and  murderous.  The  facts  do  not  bear  out 
this  opinion.  Here  again  they  appear  rather  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  older  type  of  immigrant. 
The  United  States  Industrial  Commission  on 
Immigration  shows,  by  its  statistical  report,^ 
that  "taking  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  the 
whites  of  foreign  birth  are  a  trifle  less  criminal 
than  the  total  number  of  whites  of  native  birth." 
This  report  further  says :  "Taking  the  inmates  of 
all  penal  and  charitable  institutions,  we  find  that 
the  highest  ratio  is  shown  by  the  Irish,  whose 
proportion  is  more  than  double  the  average  for 
the  foreign-born,  amounting  to  no  less  than 
16,624  to  the  million." 

By  far  the  greatest  proportion  of  crime  is 
caused  by  intemperance,  and  here  the  Italians 
are  at  a  decided  advantage,  for  they  are 
among  the  least  intemperate  of  the  foreign  peo- 
ples, and  far  less  so  than  the  average  native-born. 
Arrests  for  drunkenness  are  exceedingly  rare 
among  them,  and  a  drunken  Italian  woman  is  as 


Criminal 
Record 


Italians 
Temperate 


'Industrial  Commission  Report  to  Congress,  Dec.  5,  1901. 


142  Aliens  or  Americans? 


rare  as  one  of  immoral  character.  While  in 
Massachusetts  three  in  a  hundred  of  the  northern 
races,  mcluding  the  Scotch,  Irish,  English,  and 
Germans,  were  arrested  for  intemperance  in  a 
given  year,  only  three  in  a  thousand  of  the  Ital- 
ians were  arrested  on  this  charge.  In  these 
respects  the  race  is  deserving  of  great  com- 
mendation, especially  in  face  of  the  tenement  con- 
ditions into  which  most  of  the  newcomers  are 
thrust.  If  they  become  worse  in  America  than 
they  were  when  they  came,  we  ought  to  take  heed 
to  the  sins  of  greed,  and  not  put  all  the  blame  on 
the  aliens. 

In  crimes  against  the  person  the  Italians  are 
at  their  worst,  but  the  affrays  with  knives  and 
pistols  are  confined  mostly  to  their  own  national- 
ity, and  grow  out  of  jealousy  or  rivalry  or  resent- 
ment at  fancied  injuries.  "There  are,  no  doubt," 
says  Dr.  S.  J.  Barrows/  "murders  of  sheer  bru- 
tality, or  those  committed  in  the  course  of  rob- 
bery. There  are  known  instances  also  of  black- 
mail and  dastardly  assassination  by  individuals 
or  bands  of  ruffians.  But  such  outrages  are 
utterly  at  variance  with  the  known  disposition 
of  the  great  mass  of  the  Italians  in  this  country. 
There  are  vile  men  in  every  nationality,  and  it 
does  not  appear  by  any  substantial  evidence  that 
the  Italian  is  peculiarly  burdened,  though  it  has 
been  unwarrantably  reproached  through  ignor- 

^The  Italian  in  America,  215,  216. 


The  New  Immigration 


143 


ance  or  prejudice."  This  is  the  opinion  of  an 
expert  in  criminology,  who  has  traveled  exten- 
sively in  Italy  and  knows  the  people  on  both  sides 
of  the  sea. 

It  is  a  fact  of  importance  that  the  great  major- 
fty  of  the  Italian  immigrants,  while  classed  as 
unskilled,  have  had  some  experience  in  farming 
or  gardening  or  home  industries  of  some  kind. 
There  is  a  larger  percentage  of  skilled  labor  than 
is  commonly  supposed,  and  the  list  is  interesting. 
The  Annual  Report  on  Immigration  for  1905, 
for  example,  gives  the  distribution  by  occupation, 
from  which  we  take  some  of  the  leading  classes : 

PROFESSIONS,  TRADES  AND  INDUSTRIES  OF  THE  ITALIANS 
ADMITTED  IN  1905 

North  South 
Italy  Italy 


Occupation 

North 
Italy 

South 
Italy 

10 

10 

52 

69 

9 

6 

24 

20 

Engineers,  profeeeional 

20 

24 

Lawyers  

12 

25 

Literan,'  and  scientific 

persons  

19 

15 

38 

240 

Physicians  

34 

72 

Sculptors  and  artists. . 

116 

52 

Teachers  

31 

45 

Bakers  

201 

571 

82 

1,718 

168 

909 

65 

278 

Carpenters  and  cabinet 

makers  

Dressmakers  

Gardeners  

Masons  

Miners  

Shoemakers  

Stonecutters  

Tailors  

Farm  laborers  

Farmers  

Manufacturers  

Merchants  and  dealers. 

Servants  

Laborers  

No  occupation,  includ- 
ing children  under  14 


367 
161 
30 
1,374 
1,843 
287 
409 
239 
6,181 
1,397 
14 
557 
2,752 
14,291 


1,857 
615 
165 
3,161 
492 
4,004 
567 
2,591 
60,529 
4,814 
32 
1,415 
8,669 
56,040 


7,632  32,115 


It  will  be  seen  that  not  all  the  Italians  who 
come  are  mere  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water;  while  there  is  a  distinct  tendency  on  the 
part  of  those  who  begin  at  the  bottom  of  drudg- 
ery, in  the  subways  of  American  civilization,  to 


Italians  not 
all  Unskilled 


Tendency  to 
Advance 


144  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Desire  for  advance.  The  desire  for  education  and  better- 
Education  .  .    .    ,         r  1  -K- 

ment  is  as  manifest  as  it  is  hopeful.  No  parents 
are  more  ambitious  for  their  children,  or  more 
'devotedly  attached  to  them,  than  are  the  Italian 
immigrants  who  have  brought  over  their  fami- 
lies, and  no  children  in  our  schools  are  brighter 
or  more  attentive.  There  is  good  blood  in  the 
Italian  strain.  They  are  an  art  and  music-loving 
people,  and  in  this  respect  the  southern  Italians 
take  the  lead.  They  come  from  a  land  of  beauty 
and  fame,  song  and  sunshine,  and  bring  a  sunny 
temperament  not  easily  soured  by  hardship  or 
disappointment.  Otherwise  the  tenement  and 
labor-camp  experiences  in  America  would  soon 
spoil  them.  With  the  exception  of  the  money 
they  earn,  the  change  has  been  for  the  worse. 
Amazing      j^ie  thrift  of  the  Italians  is  proverbial.  To 

Thrift  ... 

earn  and  save  money  they  will  live  in  conditions 
unsanitary,  unhealthy,  and  degrading.  It  is  not 
because  they  love  dirt  and  degradation,  but  that 
they  want  money  so  much  that  they  will  put  up 
with  anything  to  get  it.  They  can  live  and  save 
a  bit  where  an  American  family  would  starve. 
The}-  have  fairly  monopolized  for  a  time  certain 
lines  into  which  they  entered — as  the  small  fruit 
trade,  the  bootblacking  business,  and  other  pur- 
suits. It  is  said  that  they  have  made  the  Ameri- 
cans a  fruit-eating  people.  Supplanted  in  the 
street-vending  of  fruit  by  the  Greek,  the  Italian 
has  gone  into  business  in  earnest,  and  you  find  the 


The  New  Immigration  145 


small  fruit  stands  everywhere,  with  always  a 
good  stock,  and  by  no  means  a  low  price.  As 
barbers  and  tailors,  too,  the  Italians  are  becom- 
ing known.  They  have  a  passion  for  land,  and 
acquire  property  rapidly.  Take  the  increase  of 
their  real  estate  holdings  in  New  York  as 
an  example.  Mr.  G.  Tuoti,  a  representative 
Italian  operator  in  real  estate,  says  that  twenty 
years  ago  there  was  not  a  single  Italian  owner 
of  real  estate  in  the  districts  where  such  owners 
now  predominate.  He  has  a  list  of  more  than 
800  landowners  of  Italian  descent,  whose  aggre- 
gate holdings  in  New  York  are  approximately 
$15,000,000.^ 

As  to  Italian  savings  and  investments  in  the  Property 
same  city,  Mr.  Gino  C.  Speranza,  vice-president 
of  the  Society  for  Italian  Immigrants,  finds  on 
computation  the  Italian  investments  in  the  city 
savings-banks  to  total  more  than  $15,000,000. 
He  puts  the  real  estate  holdings  at  4,000,  of  the 
clear  value  of  $20,000,000.  He  estimates  that 
10,000  stores  in  the  city  are  owned  by  Italians,  and 
sets  their  value  at  $7,000,000,  with  a  further 
investment  of  as  much  more  in  wholesale  busi- 
ness. He  makes  the  total  material  value  of  the 
property  of  the  Italian  colony  in  New  York  to  be 
over  $60,000,000,  and  says  this  value  is  relatively 
below  that  of  the  Italian  possessions  in  Saint 
Louis,  Boston,  and  Chicago.   The  Italian  Cham- 

'G.  Tuoti,  in  The  Italian  in  America,  78. 


146  Aliens  or  Americans? 


The  New  Immigration  147 


ber  of  Commerce  has  over  two  hundred  members, 
and  has  done  much  to  promote  the  interests 
of  the  immigrants.  There  is  one  distinctively 
Italian  Savings  Bank,  with  an  aggregate  of 
deposits  approximating  $1,100,000,  and  about 
7,000  open  accounts.  Sixteen  daily  and  weekly 
Italian  newspapers  in  New  York  alone  indicate 
that  the  people  are  reading,  and  that  not  all  are 
illiterates  by  any  means.  The  Italian  Hospital, 
the  Italian  Benevolent  Institute,  and  over  150 
Italian  societies  for  mutvial  aid  and  social  improve- 
ment— all  this  in  New  York — indicate  a  degree 
of  enterprise  and  progress.  In  the  smaller  cities 
the  condition  of  the  Italians  is  in  many  respects 
much  better  than  in  the  great  centers,  since  the 
tenement  evils  are  escaped.  The  reports  from 
such  cities  as  Bridgeport,  Connecticut,  and 
Schenectady,  New  York,  are  most  favorable  as 
to  the  general  character  of  the  Italians  as  faithful 
workers  and  peaceful  residents. 

In  the  cities  and  on  the  small  farms  of  the  increasing 
South  and  West  the  prosperity  of  the  Italians  is 
marked.  They  take  unproductive  land  and  make 
it  fertile  soil  for  truck-gardening,  and  have  in- 
creased the  value  of  surrounding  lands  in  Louisi- 
ana and  other  states  by  showing  what  can  be 
done.  If  they  can  be  distributed  properly,  and 
gotten  out  of  the  congested  city  wards,  there  is 
unquestionably  a  future  of  prosperity  for  them. 
A  Texas  colony  described  by  Signor  Rossi,  who 


148  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Successful 
Truck  Farmers 


A  Good 
Proposition 


recently  investigated  conditions  with  view  to 
securing  a  better  distribution  by  informing 
intending  emigrants  as  to  the  openings  for  them 
in  agricultural  sections,  illustrates  the  success  of 
the  Italians  as  gardeners  and  farmers. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  San  Francisco  Italians 
have  cultivated  about  250  truck  farms.  They 
"obtain  the  manure  from  the  city  stables  gratis, 
and  transform  into  fertile  farms  the  original  sand 
dunes."  Nearly  all  our  cities  where  Italians  have 
settled  are  receiving  vegetables  and  fruit  as  the 
product  of  Italian  labor,  and  the  Italian  is  first 
in  the  market.  They  are  found  on  Long  Island 
and  Staten  Island,  in  New  Jersey  and  Delaware, 
in  Virginia,  and  in  all  the  New  England  states. 
Near  Memphis,  Tennessee,  there  is  a  large  and 
noted  colony  of  truck  farmers,  and  they  have 
done  much  to  remove  the  prejudice  formerly 
existing  against  Italian  labor  in  the  South.^  In 
this  connection  we  give  hearty  second  to  the 
statesmanlike  proposition  made  by  a  Christian 
worker  who  has  been  brought  into  close  touch 
with  the  Italians  and  other  foreign  peoples  in 
Brooklyn 

"Pure  philanthropy  could  not  find  a  better  field 
for  the  investment  of  a  few  hundred  thousand 
dollars  than  in  the  organization  of  farm  and 


*A  remarkable  showing  of  what  the  Italians  have  accomplished 
through  these  farming  colonies  in  various  parts  of  the  country  is  given 
in  the  chapter  "On  Farm  and  Plantation, "  in  The  Italian  in  America. 

*Rev.  E.  P.  Farnham,  D.D.,  in  New  York  Examiner,  June  22, 
1906. 


The  New  Immigration  149 


garden  colonies  a  few  miles  out  from  our  great 
city.  On  Long  Island  there  are  many  thousands 
of  acres  of  light,  arable  land  perfectly  adapted 
to  the  raising  of  small  fruits  and  garden  prod- 
ucts. Irrigation  plants  could  be  provided  at 
moderate  cost,  insuring  generous  crops.  The 
Italian  is  prepared  by  nature,  and  by  training  in 
his  own  home  land,  for  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 
In  a  small  way  he  has  demonstrated  his  ability 
in  the  land  of  his  adoption  to  do  the  very  things 
here  suggested.   What  he  needs  is  a  fair  chance. 

"What  is  needed  is  the  guiding  hand  of  strong  Quid- 
'philanthropy  and  five  per  cent.'  to  lead  out  of  the  Needed 
congested  and  squalid  tenement  districts  thou- 
sands of  these  poor  yet  industrious  people  who 
could  make  our  deserts  of  Long  Island  sand  and 
scrub  oak  blossom  as  the  rose.  Let  the  modern 
method  find  illustration  here.  Let  our  philan- 
thropist choose  for  himself  a  board  of  trustees 
to  whom  should  be  delegated  the  management 
of  a  generous  fund  toward  the  end  proposed. 
Keen-minded  and  great-hearted  business  men 
there  are  who  would  delight  to  give  time  and 
care  to  so  worthy  an  object ;  and  within  five 
years  a  colony  of  25,000  Italians  could  be  trans- 
ported and  translated  from  the  ghettos  and  filthy, 
crowded  tenement  districts  of  our  great  city  into 
God's  open  country',  there  to  be  speedily  trans- 
formed into  industrious,  self-supporting  Amer- 
ican citizens.    Having  studied  this  problem  for 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


The  Crucial 
Point 


Opportunity 
of  Wealth 


Favorable 
Conclusion 


years,  I  believe  it  is  entirely  feasible.  Brain  and 
heart,  time  and  talent,  land  and  water,  enlarging 
markets  demanding  produce,  men,  women,  and 
children  begging  for  an  opportunity  to  earn  a 
decent  living — all  these  are  ready  and  waiting 
for  use  and  service.  All  that  is  lacking  is  an 
adequate  supply  of  good  money  to  set  the  enter- 
prise in  motion.  We  have  millions  invested  at 
Coney  Island,  at  Gravesend  racing  track,  and  at 
the  new  Belmont  Park,  to  beguile  and  hypnotize 
the  masses.  God  must  have  in  his  keeping  some- 
where millions  to  uplift  and  redeem  the  masses. 
There  is  unspeakable  need  that  they  be  ministered 
unto  in  the  spirit  of  the  Master." 

These  are  weighty  and  practical  words,  and 
some  day  Christian  men  of  wealth  will  see  the 
wisdom  of  them.  How  could  American  prosper- 
ity better  insure  itself  and  all  it  represents  for 
the  future? 

What,  then,  is  the  conclusion  of  our  study? 
On  the  whole,  decidedly  favorable  to  the  Italian, 
while  recognizing  the  vicious  and  undesirable 
element  that  forms  a  comparatively  small  part  of 
the  whole.  The  Italian  in  general  is  approach- 
able, receptive  to  American  ideas,  not  criminal 
by  nature  more  than  other  races,  not  difficult  to 
adapt  himself  to  new  environment,  and  eager  to 
earn  and  learn.  He  furnishes  excellent  raw 
material  for  American  citizenship,  if  he  does  not 
come  too  rapidly  to  be  Americanized.   But  what 


The  New  Immigration 


he  will  mean  to  America,  for  good  or  ill,  depends 
almost  wholly  upon  what  America  does  foi-  and 
with  and  through  him.  Thus  far,  there  has  been 
too  much  of  prejudice  and  neglect.  Better 
acquaintance  is  the  first  step  toward  the  trans- 
formation of  the  Italian  alien  into  the  Italian- 
American. 

As  for  the  religious  side,  here  is  testimony 
from  a  Roman  Catholic  source.  Mrs.  Betts 
says  :^ 

"The  relation  between  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  and  the  mass  of  the  Italians  in  this  coun- 
try is  a  source  of  grief.  Reluctantly  the  writer 
has  to  blame  the  ignorance  and  bigotry  of  the 
immigrant  priests  who  set  themselves  against 
American  influence ;  men  who  too  often  lend 
themselves  to  the  purposes  of  the  ward  heeler, 
the  district  leader  in  controlling  the  people,  who 
too  often  keep  silence  when  the  poor  are  the 
victims  of  the  shrewd  Italians  who  have  grown 
rich  on  the  ignorance  of  their  countrymen.  One 
man  made  $8,000  by  supplying  1,000  laborers  to 
a  railroad.  He  collected  $5  from  each  man  as  a 
railroad  fare,  though  transportation  was  given 
by  the  road,  and  $3  from  each  man  for  the 
material  to  build  a  house.  The  men  supposed  it 
was  to  be  a  home  for  their  families.  They  found 
as  a  home  the  wretched  shelters  provided  by  con- 
tractors, with  which  we  are  all  familiar.  This 

1  University  Settlement  Studies,  December,  1905. 


Roman 

Catholic 

Testimony 


152 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


transaction,  when  known,  did  not  disturb  the 
Church  or  social  relations  of  the  offender,  but  it 
increased  his  political  power,  for  it  showed  what 
he  could  do.    He  is  recognized  to-day  as  the 

Mayor  of  street ;  his  influence  is  met 

everywhere." 

Accessible  to      There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Italians  are  acces- 

Evangelism 

sible  to  evangelical  Christianity.  Thousands  of 
them  appreciate  the  true  character  of  the  Church 
that  tried  to  prevent  Italian  unity  and  liberty,  and 
they  are  peculiarly  open  to  the  truths  of  democ- 
racy and  the  gospel.  The  home  missionary  finds 
among  them  a  fruitful  field.  Dr.  Lee  expresses 
the  conclusions  of  many  observers,  and  indicates 
also  a  gate  of  personal  opportunity  to  serve, 
when  he  says,  as  a  result  of  personal  observation 
and  effort: 

Exceptionally      "Incident  to  the  general  recoil  from  the  papal 

OpeD-mioded  °  f  r 

control,  an  enormous  number  of  the  Italians  com- 
ing to  this  country  are  out  of  the  old  Church ; 
they  are  without  religion,  yet  are  in  a  way  grop- 
ing after  one.  As  a  consequence  the  Italian  is 
exceptionally  open-minded.  You  can  talk  with 
him.  He  is  not  suspicious — not  apprehensive 
lest  you  mislead  him.  He  may  have  no  respect 
for  any  kind  of  religion,  but  he  is  not  afraid  that 
you  will  lure  him  into  forbidden  paths.  He  is 
beginning  to  think — a  privilege  which  he  has 
been  denied  in  the  past.  This  open-mindedness 
is  readiness  to  accept  the  spirit  and  theories  of 


The  New  Immigration  153 


American  life ;  for  open-mindedness  is  ah  Ameri- 
can characteristic." 

And  open-mindedness  toward  the  gospel  is  the 
vestibule  to  conversion. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  IV 

Aim  :  To  Consider  the  Desirability  of  the  Italians 
AS  Immigrants,  and  the  Opportunity  for  Chris- 
tian Work  among  Them. 

I.  Contrast  the  Old  and  New  Immigration. 

1.  What  is  the  New  Immigration? 

2.  What  has  become  of  the  earlier  immigrants? 
Was  their  coming  a  benefit  to  the  United 
States? 

3.  Would  your  judgment  concerning  it  have  been 
the  same  when  they  were  coming? 

4.  What  races  have  gained  and  what  have  lost  in 
their  respective  proportions  ? 

II.  The  Italians. 

5.  What  are  the  leading  types  at  present?  What 
are  they  likely  to  be  in  the  future? 

6.  Mention  opposing  opinions  as  to  the  Italians? 
Which  seem  to  you  nearer  the  truth? 

7.  What  diflferences  are  there  between  Italians 
from  different  parts  of  Italy? 

8.  From  what  class  come  most  of  the  Italians 
now  arriving?  Of  what  sex?  What  age? 
What  skill? 

9.  How  has  Italian  immigration  grown  in  num- 
bers?   How  has  it  been  distributed? 

10.    What  proportion  go  West  and  South?  Are 
efforts  being  made  to  attract  them  anywhere? 


154  Aliens  or  Americans? 

III.  Are  the  Italians  a  Desirable  Class  of  Immigrants? 

11.  How  do  they  compare  with  the  early  Irish 
immigrants?   With  other  nationalities? 

12.  What  is  the  record  of  Italians  in  this  country; 
as  to  work,  citizenship,  self-support,  crime, 
temperance,  thrift,  care  for  education,  financial 
ability? 

13.  Have  many  Italians  taken  to  farming?  Do 
they  succeed?   What  sort  of  farming? 

14.  What  efforts  are  being  made  to  direct  and  dis- 
tribute the  Italian  immigrants? 

IV.  What  is  the  Opportunity  of  the  Christian  Church 
Among  Themf 

15.  Do  you  know  of  any  specific  effort  to  uplift 
them  through  Christian  influences? 

16.  Does  this  chapter  make  you  feel  that  the 
churches  can  do  more  for  them  ?   How  ? 

References  for  Advanced  Study. — Chapter  IV 

I.    Further  Study  of  Contrasts  Between  Different 
Types  of  Italians. 

Lord,  et  al ;  The  Italian  in  America,  I,  III,  V. 
Brandenburg :  Imported  Americans,  IV,  VI,  XII. 
Holt:  Undistinguished  Americans,  III. 

II.    Illiteracy  Among   the  Northern   and  Southern 
Italians. 

(i)  Its  bearing  on  their  desirability  as  immigrants. 
Brandenburg:  Imported  Americans,  IV,  XII, 
XX. 

Hall:  Immigration,  54-58,  80-83. 


The  New  Immigration 


155 


(2)  Its  relation  to  the  probable  efifect  of  a  reading 
test  for  admission. 

Lord,  et  al :  The  Italian  in  America,  VIII,  XI. 
Hall :  Immigration,  262-280. 

(3)  Its  bearing  on  their  accessibility  to  the  gospel. 
McLanahan :  Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech, 
69-74. 

Wood :  Americans  in  Process,  IX. 

III.  Location   of  Italians  After   Their  Arrival  and 
Length  of  Their  Stay. 

Brandenburg:  Imported  Americans,  II,  XIX, 
XXII. 

Lord,  et  al :  The  Italian  in  America,  VI,  VII,  IX. 

IV.  The  Italians  in  New  York  City  and  State. 
Benefits  and  dangers  arising  from  their  presence, 
and  efforts  made  to  help  them. 

Riis :  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  V,  XXIV. 
University  Settlement  Studies,  Vol.   i.  Numbers 
3  and  4,  issue  January,  1906. 

Reports  of  the  Society  for  Italian  Immigrants,  17 
Pearl  Street,  New  York  City. 


Yesterday  the  Slav  was  a  pauper  immi- 
grant; to-day  he  is  what  the  English, 
Welsh,  Irish,  and  German  miner  was  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago — on  the  way  to 
becoming  an  American  citizen.  What 
sort  of  a  citizen  he  will  be  will  depend 
upon  the  influences  brought  to  bear  upon 
him. — F.  J.  Warne. 


V 

THE  EASTERN  INVASION 


157 


My  people  do  not  live  in  America.  They  live  under- 
neath America.  America  goes  on  over  their  heads. — 
Paul  Tytnkevich,  a  Ruthenian  Priest. 

"My  people  do  not  love  America.  Why  should  they, 
from  what  they  see  of  it  ?"  This  is  the  profoundly  sug- 
gestive question  of  a  Ruthenian  Greek-Catholic  priest, 
of  Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  who  says  his  people  do  not  come  in 
contact  with  the  better  classes  of  Americans,  but  do 
come  in  contact  with  everyone  who  hopes  to  exploit 
them. 

The  subject  of  immigration  is  the  most  far-reaching 
in  importance  of  all  those  with  which  this  government 
has  to  deal.  The  history  of  the  world  offers  no  pre- 
cedent for  our  guidance,  since  no  such  peaceful  invasion 
of  alien  peoples  has  ever  before  occurred.  It  must  have 
great  and  largely  unforeseen  effects  upon  our  form  of 
civilization,  our  social  and  political  institutions,  and, 
above  all,  upon  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  charac- 
teristics of  our  people.  Can  such  a  subject  be  consid- 
ered too  seriously  or  too  minutely?  I  cannot  think  it 
possible.  The  danger  lies  in  the  opposite  direction. — 
F.  P.  Sargent. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Slav  immigrants, 
and  especially  their  descendants,  are  impressionable  and 
adaptable;  that  forces  are  at  work  which  have  already 
done  much  for  them,  and  will  do  more.  The  results 
of  the  public  school  are  sure  though  slow.  The  full- 
grown  individual  must  be  brought  under  the  influence 
of  a  yet  more  powerful  agency,  one  which  makes  also 
for  civilization  and  for  Americanism  in  the  best  sense. 
— F.  J.  Warne. 


158 


V 


THE  EASTERN  INVASION 
EAST  known,  least  liked,  and  least  assimila-  Mistaken 


'  ble  of  all  the  alien  races  migrating  to 
America  are  the  Slavs.  That  expresses  the  gen- 
eral opinion,  based  on  ignorance  and  dislike.  To 
the  common  view  they  seem  to  combine  all  the 
undesirable  elements — low  living,  low  intelli- 
gence, low  morality,  low  capacity,  low  everything, 
including  wages — this  explaining  in  large  meas- 
ure their  presence.  The  very  name  Slav  excites 
prejudice.  If  an  exclusion  act  of  any  kind  were 
to  be  passed  it  would  probably  be  easier  to  aim  it 
at  the  Slavs  than  any  other  class  of  immigrants. 
We  are  now  to  submit  this  common  opinion  to 
the  test  of  investigation,  and  see  whether  it  is 
warranted  in  fact.  Nowhere  is  discrimination 
based  on  knowledge  more  necessary  than  in  deal- 
ing with  this  Slavic  race  division.  First  let  us 
learn  who  the  Slavs  are.  The  following  table 
shows  this,  and  also  how  many  of  them  entered 
our  ports  in  1905  : 

Poles   102,437      Servians,  Bulgarians,  and 


Slovaks  

Croatiana  and  Slovenians 
Lithuanians  


52,368 
35,104 
18,604 


Montenegrins  

Dalmatians,  Bosnians,  and 
Herzegovinians  


5,823 


2.639 


159 


i6o 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Ruthenians. 
Rounumians. 
Magyars'... 


14,473 
7,818 
46,030 


Bohemians  and  Moravians   11,757 

Russians  proper   3.746 

Russian  Jews'   92,388 


The  Slavs  proper  number  about  125,000,000, 
or  more  than  one  twelfth  of  the  total  population 
of  the  world.  They  have  been  concentrated,  until 
the  recent  migration  began,  in  the  eastern  and 
larger  part  of  Europe.  They  make  up  the  bulk 
of  Russia,  the  great  Slav  power  (numbering 
about  70,000,000),  and  of  the  Balkan  States,  and 
form  nearly  half  of  the  population  of  Austria- 
Hungary.  The  various  Slavic  languages  and 
dialects  are  closely  related  but  differ  as  do  Ger- 
man and  Swedish,  so  that  the  different  races  can- 
not understand  each  other.2 

The  Slav  immigration  is  of  comparatively  re- 
cent date.  Before  1880  it  was  unnoticeable.  A 
small  number  of  Bohemians  and  Poles  had  come, 
settling  in  the  larger  cities.  But  suddenly  the 
thousands  began  to  pour  in.  Demand  for  cheap 
labor  in  the  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania  drew  this 
class,  and  presently  the  American,  Canadian, 
English,  Welsh,  Irish,  Scotch,  and  German  mine- 
workers  found  themselves  being  supplanted  by 
the  men  from  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia- 
men  who  were  mostly  single  and  alone,  who 


'While  the  Magyars  (or  Hungarians)  are  not  Slavs,  they  have  lived 
in  close  contact  with  them,  and  for  convenience  may  be  classed 
in  the  Slavic  division;  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the  Roujnanian 
and  Russian  Jews.  All  these  peoples  come  from  Russia,  Austria- 
Hungary,  or  the  Balkan  States,  and  represent  similar  customs 
and  ideas,  although  they  differ  materially  in  character,  as  we  shall 
see. 

'Samuel  McLanahan,  Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech.  34  fi. 


The  Eastern  Invasion 


COUNTRIES  FROM  WHICH  THE  SLAVS  COME 


i62  Aliens  or  Americans? 


could  live  on  little,  eat  any  sort  of  food,  wear 
any  kind  of  clothes,  and  sleep  in  a  hut  or  store- 
house, fourteen  in  a  room.  Of  course  the  home 
of  the  English-speaking  miner,  with  its  carpet 
on  the  best  room,  its  pictures  and  comforts,  had 
to  go,  as  did  the  miner  and  his  wife  and  children, 
also  the  school  and  the  church — for  how  could 
these  stay  when  the  Slav,  homeless  and  family- 
less,  could  bunk  in  with  a  crowd  anywhere,  or 
build  himself  a  hillside  hut  out  of  driftwood,  and 
subsist  on  from  four  to  ten  dollars  a  month.  The 
one  conspicuous  thing  about  the  Slav  was  his 
ability  to  save  money.  Dr.  \\'ame  gives  a  graphic 
and  pathetic  picture  of  the  struggle  caused  by 
the  introduction  of  the  Slavs  into  Pennsylvania, 
and  his  investigations  may  profitably  be  studied.^ 
The  results  in  Pennsylvania  thus  far  are  the 
reverse  of  satisfacton.-.  The  cheap  labor  has 
become  dear  in  more  senses  than  one.  Where  in 
1880  the  English-speaking  foreign-born  com- 
posed nearly  ninety-four  per  cent,  of  the  mine 
workers,  in  1900  they  were  less  than  fifty-two 
per  cent.,  and  to-day  are  much  less  still.  The 
Slavs  dominate  in  the  mines.  Strikes  are  not  less 
frequent,  but  more  difficult  to  control,  and  the 
necessity  of  frequent  state  control  by  militia,  the 
riots  and  bloodshed,  mark  the  failure  to  Ameri- 
canize this  growing  class  of  aliens.  A  striking 
illustration  of  non-assimilation  and  the  attendant 

'F.  J.  Warne,  The  Slav  Invasion,  chap.  VI. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  163 


perils  may  be  found  in  Pennsylvania.  Fortu- 
nately all  the  Slavs  do  not  go  to  the  mines,  and 
those  who  follow  agriculture  or  trades  afford  a 
pleasanter  study.  The  census  of  1900  gave  a 
million  and  a  quarter  of  foreign-born  Slavs  and 
the  number  has  been  largely  increased.  In  1903 
221,000  came,  not  counting  the  67,000  Russian 
and  Roumanian  Jews.  Since  these  peoples  are 
all  prolific,  with  an  oversupply  at  home,  there  is 
every  prospect  that  immigration  will  increase, 
unless  some  check  is  put  upon  it.  The  Slavs  will 
have  to  be  reckoned  with,  most  assuredly,  as  an 
element  in  our  civilization. 


SLAT  DISTRIBUTION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


The  maps  here  given,  by  the  courtesy  of 
Charities,  show  the  sections  from  which  the  Slavs 
come  and  how  they  disperse  in  this  country. 


164  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Chiefly 
Unskilled  and 
Illiterate 


A  Hopeful 
View 


An  analysis  of  the  official  statistics  shows 
that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Bohe- 
mians, these  newest  immigrants  are  mainly 
unskilled,  illiterate  peasants  from  country  dis- 
tricts, and  with  little  money  in  their  pockets  when 
they  land.  Of  the  Bohemians  and  Moravians 
forty-four  per  cent  are  skilled  laborers,  and  only 
1.50  per  cent,  over  fourteen  are  unable  to  read 
and  write ;  but  of  the  Poles  eighty-five  per  cent, 
are  unskilled,  and  thirty  per  cent,  can  neither  read 
nor  write;  and  this  represents  the  average.  We 
are  getting  in  an  illiterate  mass,  therefore,  and 
the  amount  of  money  they  bring  per  capita  aver- 
ages about  $10.  But  on  this  point  a  writer  says, 
speaking  from  a  wide  observation 

"This  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  they  are 
undesirable  immigrants.  The  illiterate,  unskilled 
immigrant  may  be,  in  fact,  more  desirable  than 
the  better  educated  skilled  laborer,  or  the  still 
better  educated  professional  or  business  man. 
There  may  be  a  great  demand  here  for  unskilled 
labor.  Again,  the  moral  qualities  of  the  untaught 
but  industrious,  simple-minded,  unspoiled  coun- 
tryman may  be  far  more  wholesome  for  the 
communities  to  which  he  comes  than  those  of  the 
educated,  town-bred,  unsuccessful  business  or 
professional  man,  the  misfit  skilled  laborer,  or  the 
actual  loafer  and  sharper  of  tlie  cities,  who  comes 
over  here  when  home  gets  too  hot  for  him.  As  to 


'Miss  Kate  H.  Claghom,  in  Charities,  for  Decemtier,  1904. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  165 


illiteracy,  moreover,  the  peasant  is  improving. 
The  great  mass  of  this  unskilled  labor  pushes 
directly  through  the  great  gateway  of  New  York, 
.where  unfortunately  so  many  other  races  stop. 
They  go  to  the  eastern,  middle,  and  northern 
states,  mainly  into  our  coal  and  iron  mines,  and 
our  steel  mills,  but  also  to  the  farming  regions, 
where  they  work  patiently  and  thriftily,  first  as 
farm  laborers,  then  as  owners  of  abandoned 
farming  lands  or  cut-over  timber  lands,  reclaim- 
ing and  making  them  fertile  to  the  great  advan- 
tage of  the  markets  they  supply." 

Let  us  now  look  at  this  conglomerate  immi- 
gration a  little  more  in  detail,  and  no  longer  class 
these  peoples  indiscriminately  as  "barbarian 
Huns." 

7.    The  Bohemians 

We  may  well  begin  with  the  Bohemians,  who 
are  among  the  most  skilled,  least  illiterate,  and, 
to  Protestants,  most  interesting  of  the  Slavs.  In 
studying  any  group  of  "strangers  within  our 
gates,"  it  is  necessary  to  know  its  preemigra- 
tion  history.  These  people,  who  call  themselves 
Czechs,  are  a  principal  branch  of  the  Slav  family 
and  one  of  the  large  constituents  of  the  Austria- 
Hungarian  empire,  numbering  6,318,697  in  1901. 
At  home  they  are  chiefly  agriculturists.  In  1900 
there  were  in  this  country  325,400  persons  of 
Bohemian  parentage,  of  whom  156,991  were  born 


The  Czechs 
and  their 
History 


l66  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Stormy 

National 

Struggle 


John  Huss  and 
Jarome  of 
Pra^e 


in  Bohemia.  Since  1900  above  50.000  more  have 
come.  Three  fourths  of  them  all  are  in  the  north 
central  states  of  the  Mississippi  \'alley.  with 
Chicago  as  their  great  center.  Cleveland  has 
about  15.000.  New  York  about  the  same  number; 
while  in  agriculture  there  are  in  round  numbers 
16.000  in  Nebraska.  14.000  in  Wisconsin,  11,000 
in  Iowa,  and  9,000  in  Texas. 

As  to  their  history  in  the  old  world,  the 
Bohemians  have  had  such  a  stormy  national 
struggle,  and  the  bitterness  of  it  has  so  entered 
into  their  lives,  that  it  is  impossible  rightly  to 
judge  them  apart  from  it.  It  has  some  instructive 
lessons  for  us.  These  are  the  conditions,  as  Mr. 
Nan  Mashek,  himself  a  Bohemian,  states  them 

"For  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  they  have 
been  oppressed  by  a  pitilessly  despotic  rule.  In 
the  day  of  their  independence,  before  1620.  they 
were  Protestants,  and  the  most  glorious  and 
memorable  events  of  their  history  are  connected 
with  their  struggle  for  the  faith.  The  histon.- 
of  their  Qiurch  is  the  histon*-  of  their  nation,  for 
on  the  one  hand  was  Protestantism  and  independ- 
ence, on  the  other,  Catholicism  and  political  sub- 
jection. For  two  centuries  Bohemia  was  a  bloody 
battleground  of  Protestant  reform.  Under  the 
spiritual  and  military  leadership  of  such  men  as 
Jerome  of  Prague.  John  Huss,  and  Ziska,  the 
Bohemians  fought  their  good  fight  and  lost. 


^Charities,  for  December,  1904. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  167 


After  the  battle  of  White  Mountains,  in  1620, 
national  independence  was  completely  lost,  and 
Catholicism  was  forcibly  imposed  upon  the  coun- 
try. All  Protestant  Bibles,  books,  and  songs 
were  burned,  thus  depriving  the  nation  of  a  large 
and  rich  literature.  Those  who  still  clung  to 
their  faith  publicly  were  banished,  their  property 
becoming  forfeited  to  the  state.  After  150  years, 
when  Emperor  Joseph  II.  of  Austria  gave  back 
to  the  Protestants  some  measure  of  their  former 
freedom,  many  of  the  churches  were  reestab- 
lished ;  but  Protestantism  had  lost  much  of  its 
strength.  The  political  revolution  of  1848  led  to 
new  subjugation,  and  emigration  was  the  result. 
Large  numbers  left  the  country  in  quest  of  free- 
dom, and  some  of  these  found  their  way  to 
America." 

The  first  Bohemian  settlers  were  of  the  most 
intelligent  and  more  prosperous  classes.  They  ^^e  we 
went  West,  chiefly  to  Wisconsin,  where  their 
farms  are  among  the  finest  in  the  state.  In 
Kewaunee  County  they  constitute  over  one  third 
of  the  population,  or  6,000  out  of  17,000.  They 
have  developed  into  an  excellent  type  of  Ameri- 
can citizenship,  have  looked  well  after  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children,  many  of  whom  have  gone 
to  college,  and  are  in  every  way  progressive. 
Read  thoughtfully  what  Mr.  Mashek  says: 

"In  the  country  the  assimilation  of  Bohemians 
is  not  a  problem  which  offers  difficulties.  The 


l68  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Easy  Assimi-   pubHc  school  is  everywhere  so  potent  an  Ameri- 

lation  Through  rr^i  .  , 

Religion  canizcr  that  it  alone  is  adequate,  ihere  is,  how- 
ever, one  other  influence  which  if  brought  to 
bear,  especially  in  the  large  communities,  would 
be  helpful.  /  refer  to  the  Protestant  faith.  For 
the  most  part  Bohemians  conversant  with  their 
history  as  a  people  are  naturally  hostile  to  the 
Catholic  Qiurch,  and  when  the  restraints  which 
held  them  in  their  own  country  are  removed  by 
emigration,  many  of  the  more  enlightened  quietly 
drop  their  allegiance,  and,  through  lack  of  desire 
or  opportunity,  fail  to  ally  themselves  wnth  any 
other.  So  strong  is  this  non-religious  tendency 
among  the  Bohemians — especially  in  the  cities — 
that  it  has  resulted  in  active  unbelief,  and  hos- 
tility to  Church  influence.  This  spiritiial  isolation, 
with  its  resultant  social  separation,  is  doing  great 
harm  in  retarding  assimilation.  Aside  from  this 
matter  of  religion,  the  Bohemian  falls  into  Amer- 
ican customs  with  surprising  readiness." 
Piotestant  Thus  a  member  of  this  race  points  out  to 
Opportunity  pj-Qj-gg^-^nts  their  opportunity.  Here  is  a  people 
with  inherited  Protestant  tendencies.  They  have 
been  driven  in  Bohemia  by  an  enforced  Roman 
Catholicism  into  antagonism  to  the  Church  as 
they  know  it. 

Freethinkers'      In   Chicago,  where  over   100,000  of  them 
Society         rnake  of  that  city  the  third  largest  Bohemian 
center  in  the  world,  they  have  a  strongly  organ- 
ized Freethinkers'  Society,  with  three  hundred 


The  Eastern  Invasion  169 


branches,  which  issues  an  atheistic  catechism,  and 
has  it  taught  in  its  numerous  Sunday-schools, 
as  they  are  called.  But  there  are  thousands  who 
do  not  belong  to  this  cult,  and  who  are  open  to 
the  gospel.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Bohemians 
in  New  York,  Cleveland,  and  elsewhere  who  have 
not  advanced  to  the  Chicago  infidel  standpoint. 
Their  character  has  not  been  well  understood. 
They  possess  excellent  qualities  for  the  making 
of  good  Americans.  Christianity  in  pure  and 
true  form  is  all  they  need. 

The  Bohemians  are  a  home  people,  social,  Home-iov- 
and  fond  of  organizations  of  every  kind,  cai  Peopu 
Music  is  their  passion,  and  their  clubs,  mutual 
benefit  societies,  and  loan  associations,  success- 
fully run,  show  large  capacity  for  management. 
They  have  forty-two  papers,  seven  of  them  reli- 
gious, two  Protestant.  Their  freethinking  is  not 
all  of  it  by  any  means  of  the  dogmatic  sort  which 
has  its  catechism  of  atheism.  There  is  another 
class,  represented  by  an  old  woman  with  a  broad 
brow  over  which  the  silvery  hair  is  smoothly 
parted,  who  says  to  the  missionary,  "1  have  my 
God  in  my  heart,  I  shall  deal  with  him.  I  do  not 
want  any  priest  to  step  between  us."  That  is  the 
class  which  the  gospel  can  reach  and  ought  to 
reach  speedily. 

About  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  Bohemians  where 
live    in   the   northwest.     In    Cleveland  they 
have  entered  into  various  industries.    In  New 


I/O  Aliens  or  Americans? 


York  they  are  largely  employed  in  cigar-making, 
at  which  the  women  and  girls  work  under  condi- 
tions not  calculated  to  inspire  them  with  regard 
for  God  or  man.  The  home  life  cannot  be  what 
it  should  when  the  mothers  are  compelled  to  work 
in  the  factories,  besides  having  all  the  home  cares 
and  work.  The  testimony  of  the  tenement  inspect- 
ors is  that  the  Bohemians  are  perhaps  the  clean- 
est of  the  poor  people  in  the  city,  and  are  strug- 
gling heroically  against  the  pitiful  conditions  of 
the  tenement-houses  in  which  they  are  compelled 
to  exist. 

//.    The  Poles 

A  Largs  The  Polcs  form  one  of  the  oldest  and  largest 
Element  elements  of  the  Slav  immigration.  In  1900  the 
census  gave  668,536  persons  whose  parents  were 
born  in  Poland,  and  of  these  383,510  were  them- 
selves born  there.  Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million 
of  the  latter  came  to  this  countrj-  between  1890 
and  1900,  and  in  the  five  years  following,  1900-5, 
about  350,000  more  arrived.  A  third  of  a  million 
Poles  now  in  America  do  not  understand  English. 
The  Polish  strength  is  indicated  by  the  Polish 
National  Alliance,  with  50,000  members,  and  by 
a  list  of  fifty  newspapers  published  in  the  Polish 
tongue,  four  of  them  dailies,  printed  in  Chicago, 
Buffalo,  and  Milwaukee,  the  largest  centers. 
Religious  "The  higher  classes  of  Poland  were  touched  by 
Tolerance  the  pre-Reformation  movement  of  Huss  at  Prague, 


172 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


where  they  were  generally  educated.  Reforma- 
tion ideas  did  not  gain  as  great  currency  as  in 
Bohemia,  but  both  Calvin  and  Luther  were  inter- 
ested in  their  progress  in  Poland.  A  Jesuit 
authority  complained  that  two  thousand  Roman- 
ist churches  had  become  Protestant.  A  Union 
Synod  was  formed  and  consensus  of  doctrine 
adopted.  Poland  is  described  as  the  most  tolerant 
country  of  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century.  It 
became  an  asylum  for  the  persecuted  Protestants 
of  other  lands,  notably  the  Bohemian  brethren. 
Later  on,  under  the  influence  of  Protestantism, 
literature  and  education  were  stimulated.  But 
under  succeeding  Swedish  and  Saxon  dynasties, 
and  through  Jesuit  instrumentality,  religious  lib- 
erty and  national  independence  were  lost,  and 
Poland  disappeared  from  the  map  of  Europe. 
As  a  race  the  Poles  boast  such  names  as  Coper- 
nicus the  astronomer,  Kosciusko  the  patriot  war- 
rior, and  Chopin  the  composer."^ 
Distribution  The  distribution  in  America  in  1904  was  as 
follows:  Illinois,  123,887,  of  whom  107,669  were 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Chicago  stockyards ;  Penn- 
sylvania, 118,203,  mainly  in  the  anthracite  coal 
regions  and  about  Pittsburg,  with  11,000  in  Phil- 
adelphia; New  York,  115,046,  50,000  of  them  in 
New  York  City  and  35,000  in  Buffalo  ;  Wisconsin, 
70,000,  36,000  in  Milwaukee;  Michigan,  59,075, 
26,869  in  Detroit;  Ohio,  31,136,  15,000  in  Qeve- 

'Samuel  McLanahan,  Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech,  45. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  173 


land  and  9,000  in  Toledo;  in  Massachusetts, 
Minnesota,  and  New  Jersey,  between  20,000  and 
30,000  each ;  in  Connecticut  and  Indiana,  over 
10,000  each ;  and  in  smaller  numbers  widely  dis- 
tributed. Their  preference  for  the  larger  cities  is 
shown  by  these  figures.  Recent  immigrants  are 
going  more  into  the  New  England  States. 
Already  there  is  a  second  generation  of  them  in 
the  cities  and  the  farming  country  of  the  Middle 
West,  and  they  have  their  own  teachers  and  doc- 
tors. In  New  England  they  are  spreading  in  the 
factory  towns,  and  Chicopee,  Massachusetts,  has 
six  thousand  of  them;  while  in  the  tobacco  belt 
of  Connecticut  they  furnish  a  majority  of  the 
farm  hands.  Ten  years  ago  Hartford  had  only 
three  or  four  hundred  Polish  families ;  to-day 
there  is  a  parish  of  a  thousand  people,  and  they 
liave  built  a  Catholic  church  and  given  $20,000 
toward  a  school. 

Like  most  of  the  Slavs,  the  Poles  who  come  independent  in 

1  ,  1       r     1  Spirit;  Open  to 

here  are  commonly  poor,  and  of  the  peasant  the  Gospel 
class  ;  about  one  third  of  them  are  illiterate.  They 
are  clannish,  and  clash  with  the  Lithuanians  and 
other  races.  Lovers  of  liberty,  they  clash  also 
with  the  Catholic  authorities,  going  so  far  even 
as  organized  rebellion  to  obtain  control  of  their 
church  properties  and  freedom  in  the  choice  of 
priests.  They  have  a  superstitious  dread  of 
Protestantism,  which  has  been  misrepresented  to 
them  as  extremely  difficult.  "Polish  priests  about 


174  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Pittsburg  are  said  to  boast  of  the  number  of 
Bibles,  distributed  by  Protestants,  which  they 
gather  from  the  people  and  burn."  If  once 
Protestantism  gets  a  grip  upon  them,  rapid 
defection  from  ecclesiastical  tyranny  will  follow. 
Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll  figures  that  the  Polish  Cath- 
olics as  distinct  from  Roman  Catholics,  have 
forty-three  churches  and  42,859  communicants, 
with  thirty-three  priests — this  representing  the 
extent  of  revolt  against  the  Romish  Church.  It 
must  be  granted  that  comparatively  little  has  been 
done  to  reach  this  people,  and  it  is  not  strange 
that  as  yet  the  number  of  Protestant  Poles  is 
small.  It  takes  a  larger  and  more  imposing  move- 
ment to  make  a  definite  impression  upon  those 
accustomed  to  the  size  and  strength  of  the 
Catholic  organizations. 

///.  The  Slovaks 
A  Farming  fhc  Slovaks  of  northcm  Hungary  number 
^'"^^^  about  two  millions,  and  are  closely  akin  to  the 
Bohemians  and  Moravians.  According  to  Mr. 
Rovinanek,  editor  of  the  Pittsburg  Slovak  Daily, 
they  constitute  the  trunk  of  the  great  Slavonic 
national  tree,  from  which  have  branched  so  many 
of  the  Slav  people,  at  the  head  of  whom  now 
stands  the  powerful  Russian  empire.  From  pre- 
historic time  they  were  celebrated  as  a  peaceful, 
industrious  people,  fond  of  agricultural  and  pas- 
toral life.    The  immigration  has  been  from  the 


The  Eastern  Invasion  175 


agricultural  class,  and  at  first  settlement  was 
made  in  the  mining  regions  of  Pennsylvania. 
Farming  had  its  inherited  attractions,  however, 
and  there  are  hundreds  of  Slovak  farmers  in 
Pennsylvania,  Connecticut,  and  Ohio;  while  in 
Minnesota,  Arkansas,  Virginia,  and  Wisconsin 
there  are  colonies  of  them,  where  for  many  miles 
on  every  side  the  land  is  entirely  in  their  pos- 
session. Kossuth  was  a  Slovak,  to  their  lasting 
pride.  Over  100,000  of  them  have  come  to 
America  since  1900,  one  fourth  of  them  illiter- 
ates. They  had  little  opportunity  to  be  otherwise 
at  home,  but  since  coming  here  their  advance- 
ment educationally  has  been  marked. 

"This  is  due,"  says  Mr.  Rovinanek,  "largely  to  Religious  in 
the  intensely  religious  spirit  which  prevails  among 
the  Slavic  peoples,  and  to  the  fact  that  here  they 
have  been  able  to  combine  schools  with  their 
churches."  The  total  number  now  in  the  country 
is  estimated  at  250,000,  of  whom  150,000  are 
in  Pennsylvania.  Two  thirds  of  the  immigrants 
are  men. 

They  live  usually  in  very  poor  and  crowded  industrial 
quarters,  one  family  having  sometimes  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  boarders,  and  under  conditions 
far  from  cleanly  or  sanitary.  There  are  nearly 
as  many  newspapers  in  the  United  States  in  the 
Slovak  language  as  in  Hungary,  with  a  much 
larger  total  circulation.  This  press  has  stimu- 
lated industrial  and  business  enterprises  in  the 


176  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Slovak  communities.  There  are  numerous  small 
mercantile  establishments.  In  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  Chicago,  wire  and  tinware  factories 
established  with  Slovak  capital  and  conducted 
with  Slovak  labor  are  securing  the  cream  of  this 
trade  in  the  country.  For  centuries  the  tinware 
of  Europe  was  made  largely  by  the  Slovaks. 
They  have  a  high  position  also  for  electrical 
designs  and  other  skilled  work. 
organization«  They  are  a  great  people  for  organization.  The 
National  Slavonic  Society  was  organized  in 
Pittsburg  in  1890,  with  250  members;  it  now  has 
20,000  active  members  and  512  lodges.  It  is 
primarily  a  beneficial  organization,  but  has  done 
a  valuable  work  in  educating  its  members  and 
inducing  them  to  become  American  citizens.  The 
society  requires  its  members,  after  a  reasonable 
time,  to  obtain  naturalization  papers  and  thus 
promotes  Americanization.  It  has  paid  out  nearly 
a  million  dollars  in  death  benefits,  and  much  more 
in  sick  benefits ;  has  aided  students  in  this  coun- 
try  and  Hungary,  and  national  literary  and  patri- 
otic workers  as  well,  besides  coming  to  the  rescue 
of  Slavs  in  Hungary  persecuted  by  the  govern- 
ment. Many  other  societies  have  sprung  from 
this  parent  organization,  including  a  Presby- 
terian Slavistic  Union,  and  hundreds  of  literary, 
benevolent,  and  political  clubs,  so  that  there  are 
between  100,000  and  125,000  organized  Slovaks 
in  the  United  States. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  177 


IV.    The  Magyars  or  Hungarians 

The  Magyars  belong  properly  in  a  division  by  conquerors  of 
themselves.  These  people,  who  are  Hungarians 
proper,  do  not  class  strictly  with  the  Germans 
and  Slavs  of  Hungary.  They  drove  out  their 
Slavic  predecessors  or  subjugated  them  in  the 
ninth  century,  and  became  masters  of  the  Danu- 
bian  plains.  Roman  Catholicism  became  the  state 
religion  about  the  year  1000,  but  during  the 
Reformation  period  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed 
types  of  Protestantism  gained  a  large  following 
and  were  granted  liberty.  This  was  afterward 
denied  them,  and  bloody  struggles  followed,  as  in 
Bohemia.  Protestants  were  again  placed  on  equal 
footing  with  Roman  Catholics  in  1791.  The 
Magyars  number  over  eight  millions  and  com- 
prise a  little  more  than  one  half  the  population 
of  Hungary. 

There  are  at  present  between  250,000  and  Good  and  Bad 
300,000  Hungarians  in  America.  They  have  a  ^^uai'ties 
fair  degree  of  education,  are  generally  reputed 
to  be  honest,  and  as  compared  with  the  Slavs 
(with  whom  they  are  commonly  confused)  are 
more  intelligent  and  less  industrious,  "more  agile 
■in  limb  and  temper."  Many  are  addicted  to 
drink  and  quarreling.  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
Protestants  are  morally  and  intellectually 
superior  to  the  Catholics.  The  bulk  of  the  Mag- 
yars (eighty-six  per  cent.)  are  in  the  Pennsyl- 


178 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


vania  mining  regions,  in  New  York,  New  Jer- 
sey, and  Ohio.  At  home  chiefly  agriculturists, 
here  they  work  mostly  in  mines,  mills,  and  fac- 
tories. The  Roman  Catholic  Hungarians  are  said 
to  lapse  easily  from  the  Church,  going  into  indif- 
ferentism  and  nothingism.  This  gives  opening 
for  Protestant  mission  work. 
The  City  A  Writer  who  has  made  special  investigations. 
Colony  jn  the  line  of  social  settlement  studies,^  says  that 
eighty  per  cent,  of  the  Magyars  arriving  in  New 
York  go  at  once  to  the  farms  and  mines.  The 
New  York  colony  numbers  50,000  to  60,000.  in- 
cluding the  Hungarian  Jews,  who  are  scarcely 
distinguishable  from  the  Gentiles.  The  life  of 
their  quarter  is  one  continuous  whirl  of  excite- 
ment. Pleasure  seems  the  chief  end.  The  cafe 
is  their  club  room.  Intensely  social,  fond  of  con- 
viviality and  gaiety,  bright,  polished,  graceful, 
the  Magyar  soon  learns  English,  and  adapts  him- 
self to  his  new  surroundings.  The  newspaper, 
literary  society,  and  charitable  organization  are 
the  only  institutions  he  cares  to  support.  Pride, 
independence,  fertility  of  resource,  lack  of  per- 
severance, love  of  ease  rather  than  of  a  strenuous 
life — these  are  his  qualities.  Tailoring  is  the 
chief  occupation  in  New  York,  though  Hunga- 
rians are  also  furriers,  workers  in  hotels  and  res- 
taurants and  various  kinds  of  light  factories,  and 
some  are  shopkeepers  and  merchants.  Those 

'Louis  H.  Pick,  in  Charitits,  for  December,  1904. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  179 


who  speak  from  close  knowledge  call  them  excel- 
lent "citizen-material."  In  one  of  these  typical 
East  Side  Hungarian  cafes,  as  a  guest  of  the 
Hungarian  Republican  Club,  President  Roose- 
velt spent  the  evening  and  made  a  noteworthy 
address  on  February  14,  1905.  Among  other 
things,  he  told  them  that  "Americanism  is  not 
a  matter  of  birthplace  or  race,  but  of  the  spirit 
that  is  in  the  man." 

V.  The  Lithuanians  and  Letts 
The  Lithuanians  in  Russia  number  about  two  **ine  and  miii 
millions.  They  began  to  come  in  1868,  driven 
out  by  famine  at  home,  and  the  first  comers  went 
to  the  northern  Pennsylvania  mines.  At  present 
there  are  about  200.000  in  America ;  50,000  of 
them  in  the  anthracite  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania, 
25,000  in  the  soft  coal  mines  of  western  Penn- 
sylvania and  West  Virginia ;  10,000  in  Philadel- 
phia and  Baltimore;  15,000  in  New  York;  25,- 
000  in  New  England ;  mainly  in  Boston,  Worces- 
ter, Brockton,  Hartford,  and  Bridgeport;  10,- 
000  in  Ohio  and  Michigan ;  50,000  in  Illinois  and 
Wisconsin ;  while  several  thousand  are  scattered 
over  the  western  states.  Though  nearly  all 
raised  on  farms,  they  do  not  take  to  farming  here, 
nor  do  they  like  open  air  work,  preferring  the 
mines,  factories,  foundries,  and  closed  shops.  In 
the  cities  many  of  them  are  tailors,  and  many  are 
found  in  packing-houses,  steel  plants,  hat  and 


l8o  Aliens  or  Americans? 


shoe  factories,  and  mills.  Their  chief  curse  is 
intemperance,  and  they  are  not  of  strong  charac- 
ter, having  little  of  the  quality  of  leadership. 
Generally  they  are  devout  Roman  Catholics ; 
when  not  they  are  apt  to  become  freethinkers, 
and  a  freethinkers'  alliance  has  been  formed 
among  them.  They  are  described  as  commonly 
peaceable,  well  dressed,  and  good-natured.  Their 
children  are  mostly  in  public  schools.  Little 
Protestant  work  has  been  done  among  them. 
Less  Favor-  The  Lettish  people,  like  the  Lithuanians,  their 
able  Repute  j^gjgj^i^Qj-s  and  kinsmen,  are  among  the  oldest 
races  of  Europe.  They  are  clearly  distinguished 
from  the  southern  Slavs,  being  tall  and  fair,  like 
the  Swede,  in  complexion.  The  Letts  at  home 
number  about  a  million  and  a  half.  Since  1900 
nearly  35,000  of  them  have  come  to  America, 
settling  mostly  in  the  anthracite  coal  regions. 
They  are  also  found  in  New  York,  Massachu- 
setts, Illinois,  Connecticut,  and  New  Jersey. 
About  one  half  are  illiterate,  and  in  the  coal  fields 
both  Lithuanians  and  Letts  have  a  poor  reputa- 
tion. In  Boston,  however,  there  is  an  encourag- 
ing mission  work  among  the  Lettish  people. 

VI.    The  Ruthenians 

•Prom  a  Poor  ^hc  Ruthcnians,  or  Ukrainians,  called  also  the 
Little  Russians,  at  home  occupy  the  southern 
part  of  Russia,  eastern  and  southwestern  Galicia, 
and  part  of  Bukovina    in  Austria-Hungar>'. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  i8i 


Their  number  in  Europe  is  computed  at  over 
30,000,000.  They  are  darker  and  smaller  than 
the  typical  Slav.  Roman  Catholic  in  religion, 
they  are  generally  poor,  illiterate,  backward  in 
civilization,  and  oppressed.  Immigration  began 
perhaps  thirty  years  ago,  but  not  in  appreciable 
numbers  until  recent  years.  In  the  four  years 
ending  in  June,  1903,  there  were  26,496  arrivals, 
two  thirds  men,  nearly  all  unskilled  laborers,  and 
one  half  unable  to  read  or  write.  The  number  in 
1905  was  14,473.  Pennsylvania  is  their  common 
destination.  Estimates  as  to  their  present  num- 
bers in  the  country  vary  from  160,000  to  350,000, 
the  latter  figures  given  by  Ivan  Ardan,  editor  of 
their  paper,  Svohoda,  at  Scranton.  He  says  there 
are  60,000  more  in  Canada,  and  as  many  in  Brazil 
and  other  South  American  republics,  or  about 
half  a  million  altogether  in  the  new  world. 
Probably  there  are  90,000  of  them  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. They  are  said  to  be  accessible  to  mission- 
ary influences,  but  their  ignorance  and  crowded 
conditions  of  living  make  work  difficult. 

About  eight  tenths  of  the  Ruthenians  here  are  Mostly 
laborers,  chiefly  in  the  mines ;  and  about  one 
tenth  are  farmers.  The  young  women  work  in 
shops  and  factories,  but  prefer  domestic  service, 
and  are  efficient.  The  people  are  very  saving, 
and  scarcely  one  but  has  from  $50  to  $200  at 
least  saved  and  put  away  in  some  hidden  comer 
or  in  a  bank.   They  buy  lots  and  build  houses,  or 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Greek 
Catholics 


Hopeful 
Features 


take  up  farming.  They  have  beneficial  societies 
for  sickness,  injury,  and  death,  including  wife 
and  mother  as  well  as  husband  and  father.  Mr, 
Ardan  says  Ruthenian  men  and  women  drink, 
"farmers  and  Protestants  being  exceptions." 
What  a  notable  exception  and  testimony  that  is. 

Superstitious,  devout,  attached  to  their  churches, 
the  majority  are  Greek  Catholics,  with  a  few 
Protestants  from  Russian  Ukraine,  where  Prot- 
estants are  bitterly  persecuted.  There  are  io8 
Ruthenian  churches,  composed  of  eighty  Greek 
Catholic,  twenty-six  Greek  Orthodox  (Russian 
State  Church),  and  two  Protestant,  besides  sev- 
eral Protestant  missions. 

The  people  are  as  a  rule  very  eager  to 
learn  both  their  native  and  the  English  lan- 
guage. They  have  their  adult  schools  for  this 
purpose.  Their  children  go  to  the  public  schools. 
There  are  four  Ruthenian  weeklies  and  one 
monthly  published  in  this  country,  and  some 
books.  Education  is  prompted  by  reading  circles, 
lectures,  and  societies  for  self-improvement.  The 
race  has  a  fine  physique,  with  great  physical 
endurance.  Individuality  is  more  marked  in  it 
than  in  many  Slavonic  races,  and  assimilation 
is  comparatively  rapid.  In  this  country  they 
rapidly  wake  up  to  a  new  life  and  promise  to 
make  a  worthy  addition  to  citizenship.  Such 
missionary  opportunities  should  move  our  Chris- 
tian churches  to  active  efforts. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  183 


VII.    Other  Nationalities 


Croatians  and 
Dalmatians 


Slovenians 


We  can  only  mention  the  remaining  nationaU- 
ties  of  the  Slavic  group.  The  Croatians  and  Dal- 
matians, unable  to  make  a  living  at  home,  are 
fleeing  from  starvation  and  mismanagement,  and 
seeking  work  in  America.  Croatia  is  a  kingdom 
of  Austria-Hungary.  Dalmatia  is  the  seacoast 
province  of  Austria. 

The  Slovenians  come  from  the  provinces 
northwest  of  Croatia.  The  three  nationalities 
have  probably  sent  between  200,000  and 
300,000  persons  to  America.  Dalmatians  are 
oyster  fishermen  at  New  Orleans,  make  staves  in 
Mississippi,  are  wine  dealers  in  San  Francisco, 
and  vine  growers  and  miners  in  other  parts  of 
California.  The  Slovenians  are  chiefly  found  in 
the  Pennsylvania  mines  and  other  mining  regions. 
The  Croatians  are  mostly  in  the  same  regions  and 
work,  although  in  New  York  there  are  about 
15,000  of  them  engaged  as  longshoremen  and 
mechanics,  and  a  small  number  are  farmers  out 
West.  They  are  Roman  Catholic,  largely  illiter- 
ate and  unskilled.  The  Catholics  do  little  for 
them,  and  the  Protestant  denominations  have 
undertaken  no  specific  work  in  their  behalf. 

The   Bosnians,    Herzegovinians,   Bulgarians,  *  Needy 
Servians,  and  Montenegrins  are  just  beginning 
to  come  in  appreciable  numbers.   They  represent 
much  the  same  home  conditions  as  the  nationali- 


Group 


184  Aliens  or  Americans? 


ties  mentioned  more  in  detail.  Catholicism, 
Greek  or  Roman,  has  cast  them  pretty  much  in 
the  same  mold.  Ignorant,  semi-civilized  many 
of  them,  they  have  everything  to  get  and  learn  in 
their  new  home,  and  afiford  still  larger  oppor- 
tunity for  Protestant  Christianity  in  its  mighty 
work  of  making  and  keeping  America  the  land 
of  righteousness  and  progress. 
A  Hopeful  An  interesting  series  of  articles  appeared  in 
1906  in  a  magazine  devoted  to  social  betterment,^ 
the  writer  having  spent  a  year  in  studying  condi- 
tions in  the  Slav  districts  of  Austria-Hungary. 
Living  among  the  people,  she  has  become  pro- 
foundly interested  in  them,  and  takes  a  most 
hopeful  view  of  their  possibilities  in  America. 
She  says  the  life  from  which  the  peasants  mostly 
come  to  us  is  the  old  peasant  life,  but  a  little 
way  removed  from  feudalism  and  serfdom.  Each 
little  village  is  a  tiny  world  in  itself,  with  its 
own  traditions  and  ways,  its  own  dress,  perhaps 
even  its  own  dialect.  The  amazing  gift  of  the 
Slav  for  color  and  music  permeates  the  whole 
home  life  with  poetry.  The  Slav  immigrants 
have  the  virtues  and  faults  of  their  primitive 
world.  They  come  to  America  to  make  money. 
The  majority  come  with  intent  to  earn  money  to 
take  back  home,  rather  than  with  expectation  to 
settle  here  permanently.  Unenterprising,  unlet- 
tered, they  are  at  the  same  time  hardy,  thrifty 

^Miss  Emily  Balch,  "The  Slavs  at  Home,"in  Charities  and  Com- 
mons. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  185 


and  shrewd,  honest  and  pious.  They  are  un- 
doubtedly highly  endowed  with  gifts  of  imagina- 
tion and  artistic  expression  for  which  in  their 
American  conditions  they  find  little  or  no  outlet. 

And  here  again  is  the  point  we  are  constantly  Necessity  of 

,       .        .  ,  tuTi         1       •         •  Christian 

havmg  mipressed  upon  us.  What  the  immigrant  Environment 
shall  become,  for  good  or  ill,  depends  chiefly 
upon  what  conditions  are  made  for  him,  and 
whether  he  is  given  a  chance  to  express  his  best 
self  in  this  country.  Grinding  monopoly,  harsh 
treatment,  prejudice  that  drives  into  clannishness 
and  race  hatred — these  will  make  of  the  Slavs  a 
peril.  A  genuinely  Christian  environment  and 
treatment  will  find  them  receptive  and  ready  for 
Americanization  through  evangelization. 

VIII.    The  Russian  Jews 

In  some  respects  the  most  interesting  immi-  An  interesting 
grants  from  the  Slav  countries  are  the  Jews  from 
Russia  and  Roumania.  The  German  Jew  and 
the  Russian  Jew  must  not  be  confounded ;  they 
are  as  distinct  as  any  two  races  in  the  entire 
immigrant  group.  The  German  Jew  came  to 
America  to  make  more  money,  and  is  making  it. 
The  Russian  Jew,  who  comes  from  persecution, 
is  rigidly  orthodox,  and  regards  the  commercial 
German  class  as  apostate.  He  forms  a  pictur- 
esque, vigorous,  stii  generis  member  of  the  alien 
procession. 


i86  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Coming  Sincc  the  year  1881  not  less  than  750,000 
Rapidly  j^^-gj^  immigrants  have  arrived  at  the  port  of 
New  York  alone.  On  Manhattan  Island  more 
than  every  fourth  person  you  meet  is  a  Jew.  The 
Jews  admitted  at  Ellis  Island  during  the  past  five 
years  outnumbered  all  the  communicants  in  the 
Protestant  churches  in  Greater  New  York, 
Where  they  Qf  the  io6,ooo  Jcws  admitted  in  1904,  a  large 
proportion  of  whom  settled  in  New  York,  77,000 
came  from  the  Russian  Empire,  20,000  from 
Austria-Hungary,  and  6,000  from  Roumania. 
Jewish  immigrants  from  eastern  Europe  are  all 
one  people. 

Occupation  They  show  a  larger  proportion  with  skilled, 
professional  and  commercial  training  and 
experience  than  do  any  of  the  other  newer  immi- 
grants except  the  Finns.  Nearly  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  Hebrew  immigrants  are  tailors,  nearly 
five  per  cent,  mechanics,  merchants,  or  clerks, 
and  almost  one  per  cent,  follow  the  professions. 
Of  the  remainder  a  very  considerable  proportion, 
though  not  a  majority,  are  skilled  workers  such 
as  bakers,  tobacco  workers,  carpenters,  painters, 
and  butchers.  The  garment  trades,  to  which  they 
find  themselves  adapted,  and  for  which  New 
York  is  the  world  center,  engages  perhaps  100,- 
000  of  them,  men,  women,  and  children,  many 
of  them  in  the  sweat-shops,  which  they  created. 
For  the  first  time  in  their  history,  the  Jews 
have  built  up  a  great  industrial  class,  this  being 


The  Eastern  Invasion 


187 


an  American  development.  According  to  a  Jew- 
ish authority/  the  "unspeakable  evils  of  the  tene- 
ments and  sweat-shops"  of  the  ghetto  are  under- 
mining their  physical  and  moral  health. 

The  newly  arrived  Russian  Jew  is  kept  in  the  Location 
ghetto  of  the  larger  cities — New  York,  Chicago, 
Philadelphia,  and  Boston — not  only  by  his  pov- 
erty and  ignorance  but  by  his  orthodoxy.  In  this 
district  the  rules  of  his  religion  can  more  cer- 
tainly be  followed.  Here  can  be  found  the  lawful 
food,  here  the  orthodox  places  of  worship,  here 
neighbors  and  friends  can  be  visited  within  "a 
sabbath  day's  journey."  The  young  people, 
however,  rapidly  shake  off  such  trammels,  and  in 
the  endeavor  to  be  like  Americans  urge  their 
parents  to  move  away  from  this  "foreign"  dis- 
trict. When  they  succeed,  the  Americanizing 
process  may  be  considered  well  under  way.  Con- 
cerning the  religious  change  that  comes  over  the 
young  Jew  after  he  reaches  this  country,  a  writer 
says 

"Many  a  young  man,  who  was  firm  in  his  reli-  ^^con^e 

.     .  .      1  .  .  .,,  ,       .  Eatramged 

gious  convictions  in  his  native  village,  having  from  Judaism 
heard  of  the  religious  laxity  prevalent  in  America, 
had  fully  made  up  his  mind  not  to  be  misled  by 
the  temptation  and  allurements  of  the  free  coun- 
try, but  he  succumbed  in  his  struggle  and  re- 
nounced his  Judaism  when  first  submitting  his 
chin  to  the  barber's  razor,  at  the  entreaties  and 

'Lee  Frankel.  in  The  Russian  Jew  in  the  United  States,  63. 
"Julius  H.  Greenstone,  in  The  Russian  Jew  in  tlie  United  Stales,  is8. 


l88  Aliens  or  Americans? 


persuasions  of  his  Americanized  friends  and  rela- 
tives. Religion  then  appeared  to  him  not  only 
distinct  from  life,  but  antagonistic  to  it,  and  since 
it  was  life,  a  free,  full,  undisturbed  life  he  sought 
in  coming  here,  he  felt  compelled  to  divorce  him- 
self from  all  the  religious  ties  that  had  hitherto 
encompassed  him.  Thus  it  is  that  the  immigrant 
Jewish  youth,  even  those  faithful  and  loyal  to  the 
institutions  of  old  and  who  desired  to  conduct 
their  lives  in  accordance  with  the  precepts  of 
their  religion,  became  estranged  from  Judaism 
and  suffered  themselves  to  be  swept  along  by  the 
tide.  Thus  the  immigrant  Jew  in  America  has 
frequently  become  callous  and  indifferent,  and 
sometimes  cynical  and  antagonistic  to  everything 
pertaining  to  Judaism."  While  they  are  thus 
lost  to  Judaism  they  are  not  won  to  Christian- 
ity, but  they  ought  to  be.  The  older  people 
become  reconciled  with  difficulty  to  this  irreli- 
gious attitude  and  "the  old  Jewess  still  curses 
Columbus  for  his  great  transgression  in  discover- 
ing America,  where  her  children  have  lost  their 
religion." 

Ambitious  for  The  Russiau  Jews  usually  come  in  great  pov- 
EdtTcation"'*  crty,  but  do  not  stay  poor  very  long.  In  New 
York's  East  Side  many  tenements  in  Jewish  quar- 
ters are  owned  by  persons  who  formerly  lived  in 
crowded  corners  of  others  like  them ;  and  from 
this  population  comes  many  a  Broadway  mer- 
chant, and  professional  men  in  plenty.   It  is  cer- 


The  Eastern  Invasion  189 

tain  that  the  adult  Hebrew  immigrant  has  definite 
aspirations  toward  social,  economic,  and  educa- 
tional advancement.  The  poorest  among  them 
will  make  all  possible  sacrifices  to  keep  his  chil- 
dren in  school ;  and  one  of  the  most  striking 
social  phenomena  in  New  York  City  is  the  way 
in  which  the  Jews  have  taken  prossession  of  the 
public  schools,  in  the  highest  as  well  as  lowest 
grades.  The  city  college  is  practically  filled  with 
Jewish  pupils.  In  the  lower  schools  Jewish  chil- 
dren are  the  delight  of  their  teachers  for  clever- 
ness at  their  books,  obedience,  and  general  good 
conduct ;  and  the  vacation  schools,  night  schools, 
social  settlements,  libraries,  bathing  places,  parks, 
and  playgrounds  of  the  East  Side  are  fairly 
besieged  with  Jewish  children.  Jewish  boys  are 
especially  ambitious  to  enter  professions  or  go 
into  business.  For  example,  the  head  of  one 
of  the  largest  institutions  of  the  East  Side  tells 
a  story  of  a  long  interview  with  a  class  of  boys  in 
which  all  spoke  of  the  work  they  intended  to  do. 
Law,  medicine,  journalism,  and  teaching  came 
first.  There  were  even  some  who  intended  to 
become  engineers.  A  smaller  number  were  going 
into  business,  and  not  one  intended  to  learn  any 
manual  trade.  Some  were  going  in  for  rrrusic, 
and  occasionally  one  is  found  who  intends  to 
make  his  living  by  art.  But  above  all,  the  young 
Jew  is  ambitious  and  intends  to  rise.  This  is  true 
in  all  cities. 


igo  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Worthy 
Qualities 


Good  Citizens, 
but  Poor 
Americans 


The  strong  good  qualities  of  the  Jews  are 
absence  of  the  drink  evil,  love  of  home,  desire  to 
preserve  the  purity  of  the  family,  and  remarkable 
eagerness  for  self -improvement.  They  easily 
adapt  themselves  to  the  new  environment  and 
assimilate  the  customs  and  language  of  the  new 
country.  This  leads  to  the  danger  of  readily 
falling  in  with  the  vices  found  in  the  tenement 
districts — the  children  showing  this  in  the  large 
numbers  of  them  that  appear  in  the  Juvenile 
Court.  The  remedy  is  removal,  and  this  the  Jew- 
ish parents  seek  as  soon  as  they  are  able. 

With  decent  environment  and  a  fair  chance, 
the  Russian  Jew  promises  to  become  a  good  citi- 
zen, intellectually  keen,  commercially  shrewd, 
professionally  bound  to  shine.  But  that  he  will 
ever,  except  in  rare  instances,  imbibe  the  real 
American  spirit  or  understand  the  American 
ideals  is  a  question.  At  the  same  time,  the  Jews 
are  believers  in  the  principle  of  democracy,  and 
in  case  of  an  issue  arising  on  the  separation  of 
Church  and  State,  would  be  found  standing  with 
American  Protestantism  for  the  religious  liberties 
of  the  American  people. 


The  Eastern  Invasion  191 


QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  V 

Aim  :  To  Consider  the  Desirability  of  the  Slavs  as 
Immigrants. 

I.  The  Slavic  People  as  a  Whole. 

1.  What  nationalities  are  generally  included  under 
the  term  Slavs?  Are  they  numerous  in  pop- 
ulation?   Are  they  strictly  of  one  race? 

2.  What  grounds  are  there  to  justify  popular 
prejudice  against  them?  Or  to  show  it  to  be 
ill  founded? 

3.  When  did  they  begin  to  come  in  large  num- 
bers ? 

4.  Where  have  they  largely  settled,  and  with 
what  results? 

II.  Racial  Divisions  of  the  Slavic  Immigrants. 

5.  What  can  you  tell  about  the  Bohemians,  as  to 
their  religious  history,  political  sufferings,  and 
coming  to  America?  What  are  their  condi- 
tions here?  Their  accessibility?  Their  loca- 
tion ? 

6.  Tell  about  the  Poles  in  the  same  way. 

7.  Tell  about  the  Slovaks  in  the  same  way. 

8.  Tell  about  the  Magyars  in  the  same  way. 

9.  Who  and  what  are  the  Lithuanians? 

10.  Who  and  what  are  the  Ruthenians? 

III.  Slavic  Elements  of  Strength  and  American  Out- 
look. 

11.  Mention  some  encouraging  features  with  refer- 
ence to  the  above-named  and  other  Slavs. 

12.  *  If  you  had  been  born  a  Slav  in  Europe,  would 

you  be  likely  to  prefer  America  to  Europe? 
Protestantism  to  Roman  Catholicism?  The 
country  or  the  city? 


192  Aliens  or  Americans? 


IV.    Social,  Moral,  and  Religious  Aspects  of  the  Jew- 
ish and  Slavic  Population. 

13.  How  many  Jews  are  there  in  New  York  City? 

14.  What  keeps  the  new  arrivals  in  the  larger 
cities? 

15.  Are  they  religious,  quick  to  learn,  temperate? 

16.  Mention  some   form  of  Christian  work  for 
Slavs  or  Jews  about  which  you  know. 

References  for  Advanced  Study. — Chapter  V 

I.    Further  Study   as   to   Race   Origin   and  Inter- 
relationship of  the  Slavs. 
Warne:  The  Slav  Invasion,  III. 
McLanahan:  Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech,  IV. 
II.    National  Conditions  in  Europe  which  the  Slavs 
Seek  to  Escape. 
Hall :  Immigration,  60-65. 

III.  Social  and  Moral  Effects  Produced  by  the  Slav 
Invasion  of  the  Anthracite  Regions. 

Warne :  The  Slav  Invasion,  IV,  VII. 

IV.  Factors  in  Slavic  History  and  Conditions  Favoring 
and  Hindering  the  Access  of  the  Gospel. 
McLanahan :  Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech,  34-58. 
Charities  and  Commons,  issues  1905-06. 

V.    Conditions  Among  Russian  Jews. 

Statements  of  Jewish  authors  as  to  conditions 
among  Russian  Jews  in  their  native  lands  and  in 
America. 

Bernheimer:  The  Russian  Jew  in  the  United 
States,  I  (B),  IV  (A),  VI  (A). 


The  city  is  the  nerve  center  of  our  civ- 
ilization. It  is  also  the  storm  center. 
The  city  has  a  peculiar  attraction  for  the 
immigrant.  Here  is  heaped  the  social 
dynamite;  here  the  dangerous  elements 
are  multiplied  and  concentered. — Josiah 
Strong. 


VI 

THE  FOREIGN  PERIL  OF  THE  CITY 


193 


The  city  is  the  most  difficult  and  perplexing  problem 
of  modern  times. — Francis  Lieber. 

We  must  save  the  city  if  we  would  save  the  nation. 
Municipal  government  and  city  evangelization  together 
constitute  the  distinctive  problem  of  the  city,  for  this 
generation  at  least. — Josiah  Strong. 

Talk  of  Dante's  Hell,  and  all  the  horrors  and  cruelties 
of  the  torture  chamber  of  the  lost !  The  man  who 
walks  with  open  eyes  and  bleeding  heart  through  the 
shambles  of  our  civilization  needs  no  such  fantastic 
images  of  the  poet  to  teach  him  horror. — General  Booth. 

With  the  influx  of  a  large  foreign  population  into  the 
great  cities,  there  have  come  also  foreign  customs  and 
institutions,  laxity  and  license — those  phases  of  evil 
which  are  the  most  insidious  foes  of  the  purity  and 
strength  of  a  people.  The  slums  of  our  large  cities  are 
but  the  stagnant  pools  of  illiteracy,  vice,  pauperism, 
and  crime,  annually  fed  by  this  floodtide  of  immigra- 
tion.— R.  M.  Atchison. 

You  can  kill  a  man  with  a  tenement  as  easily  as  with 
an  ax. — Jacob  Riis. 

Our  foreign  colonies  are  to  a  large  extent  in  the  cities 
of  our  own  country.  To  live  in  one  of  these  foreign 
communities  is  actually  to  live  on  foreign  soil.  The 
thoughts,  feelings,  and  traditions  which  belong  to  the 
mental  life  of  the  colony  are  often  entirely  alien  to  an 
American. — Robert  Hunter. 

The  vastness  of  the  problem  of  the  city  slum,  and  the 
impossibility,  even  with  unlimited  resources  of  men  and 
money,  of  permanently  raising  the  standards  of  living 
of  many  of  our  immigrants  as  long  as  they  are  crowded 
together,  and  as  long  as  the  stream  of  newer  immigrants 
pours  into  these  same  slums,  has  naturally  forced  itself 
upon  the  minds  of  thinking  persons. — Robert  D.  Ward. 


VI 


A 


THE  FOREIGN  PERIL  OF  THE  CITY 

/.    The  Evils  of  Environment 

S  is  the  city,  so  will  the  nation  be.   The  ten-  Tendency 
dencies  all  seem  to  be  toward  steady  con-  ^j^]^"'**''* 


centration  in  great  centers.  The  evils  of  conges-  ' 
tion  do  not  deter  the  thronging  multitudes.  The 
attractions  of  the  city  are  irresistible,  even  to 
those  who  exist  in  the  most  wretched  conditions. 
The  tenement  districts  baffle  description,  yet  noth- 
ing is  more  difficult  than  to  get  their  miserable 
occupants  to  leave  their  fetid  and  squalid  sur- 
roundings for  the  country.  To  the  immigrants 
the  city  is  a  magnet.  Here  they  find  colonies  of 
their  own  people,  and  prize  companionship  more 
than  comfort.  "Folks  is  more  company  than__ 
stumps,"  said  an  old  woman  in  the  slums  to 
Dr.  Schaufifler.  In  the  great  cities  the  immi- 
grants are  massed,  and  this  constitutes  a  most 
perplexing  problem.  If  tens  of  thousands  of 
foreigners  could  somehow  be  gotten  out  of 
New  York,  Boston,  Chicago,  and  other  cities, 
and  be  distributed  where  they  are  needed  and 
could  find  work  and  homes,  immigration  would 
cause  far  less  anxiety.   But  when  the  immigrant 

195 


196  Aliens  or  Americans? 


prefers  New  York  or  Chicago,  what  authority- 
shall  remove  him  to  Louisiana  or  Oklahoma? 
Perils  Due  to  foreigner  is  in  the  city ;  he  will  chiefly  stay 

Environment     ,  .    ,  ...  ,  ' 

there ;  and  the  question  is  what  can  be  done  to 
improve  his  city  environment;  for  the  perils  to 
which  we  refer  are  primarily  due  not  to  the  for- 
eigner himself  but  to  the  evil  and  vice-breeding 
conditions  in  which  he  has  to  exist.  These  imperil 
him  and  make  him  a  peril  in  turn.  The  over- 
crowded tenements  and  slums,  the  infection  of 
long-entrenched  corruption,  the  absence  of  light, 
fresh  air,  and  playgrounds  for  the  children,  the 
unsanitary  conditions  and  exorbitant  rents,  the 
political  heelers  teaching  civic  corruption,  the 
saloons  with  their  attendant  temptations  to  vice 
and  crime,  the  fraudulent  naturalization — these 
work  together  upon  the  immigrant,  for  his  undo- 
ing and  thus  to  the  detriment  of  the  nation. 
When  we  permit  such  an  environment  to  exist, 
and  practically  force  the  immigrant  into  it  be- 
cause we  do  not  want  him  for  a  next-door  neigh- 
bor, we  can  hardly  condemn  him  for  forming 
foreign  colonies  which  maintain  foreign  customs 
and  are  impervious  to  American  influences.  It 
has  too  long  been  the  common  practice  to  lay 
ever\-thing  to  the  foreigner.  Would  it  not  be 
fairer  and  more  Christian  to  distribute  the  blame, 
and  assume  that  part  of  it  which  belongs  to  us. 
In  the  study  of  the  facts  contained  in  this  chapter, 
put  yourself  persistently  in  the  place  of  the  immi- 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  197 


grant,  suddenly  introduced  into  the  conditions 
here  pictured,  and  ask  yourself  what  you  would 
probably  be  and  become  in  like  circumstances. 

How  the  other  half  lives  is  not  the  only  mys-  a  caii  for 
tery.  How  little  the  so-called  upper-ten  know 
how  the  lower-ninety  live.  And  how  little  you 
and  I,  who  are  fortunate  to  count  ourselves  in 
the  next  upper-twenty,  perhaps,  know  how  the 
under-seventy  exist  and  think  and  do.  If  only 
the  more  fortunate  thirty  per  cent,  knew  of  the 
exact  conditions  under  which  a  large  proportion 
of  men,  women,  and  children  carry  on  the  pitiful 
struggle  for  mere  existence,  there  would  be  an 
irresistible  demand  for  betterment.  Every  Chris- 
tian ought  to  know  the  wrongs  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, in  order  that  he  may  help  to  right  them. 
This  glimpse  beneath  the  surface  of  the  city 
should  stir  us  out  of  comfortable  complacency 
and  give  birth  in  us  to  the  impulse  that  leads  to 
settlement  and  city  mission  work,  and  to  civic 
reform  movements.  The  young  men  and  women 
of  America  must  create  a  public  sentiment  that 
will  demolish  the  slunis,  and  erect  in  their  places 
model  tenements;  that  will  tear  down  the  rook- 
eries, root  out  the  saloons  and  dens  of  vice,  and 
provide  the  children  with  playgrounds  and 
breathing  space.  And  this  work  will  be  directly 
in  the  line  of  Americanizing  and  evangelizing  the 
immigrants,  for  they  are  chiefly  the  occupants 
and  victims  of  the  tenements  and  the  slums. 


ipS  Aliens  or  Americans  ? 


Vanishing         Ncw  York  is  a  city  in  America  but  is  hardly 

Americanism  ,         .  .  .  ,  ^ 

an  American  city.  iSor  is  any  other  of  our  great 
cities,  except  perhaps  Philadelphia.  Boston  is  an 
Irish  city,  Qiicago  is  a  German-Scandinavian- 
Polish  city,  Saint  Louis  is  a  German  city,  and 
New  York  is  a  Hebrew-German-Irish-Italian- 
Bohemian-Hungarian  city — a  cosmopolitan  race 
conglomeration.  Eighteen  languages  are  spoken 
in  a  single  block.  In  Public  School  No.  29  no 
less  than  twenty-six  nationalities  are  represented. 
This  indicates  the  complicated  problem. 
A  Jewish  City  Ngw  York  is  the  chief  Jewish  capital.  Of  the 
760,000  Jews  on  Manhattan,  about  450,000  are 
Russian,  and  they  overcrowd  the  East  Side 
ghetto.  In  that  quarter  the  signs  are  in  Hebrew, 
the  streets  are  markets,  the  shops  are  European, 
the  men,  women,  and  children  speak  in  Yiddish, 
and  all  faces  bear  the  foreign  and  Hebrew  mark 
plainly  upen  them. 
An  Italian  Go  ou  a  little  further  and  you  find  that  you 
*^'*>'  are  in  Little  Italy,  quite  distinct  from  Jewry, 
but  not  less  foreign.  Here  the  names  on  the  signs 
are  Italian,  and  the  atmosphere  is  redolent  with 
the  fumes  of  Italy.  The  hurdy-g^rdy  vies  with 
the  push-cart,  the  streets  are  full  of  children  and 
women,  and  you  are  as  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
land.  You  would  not  be  in  a  more  distinctively 
Italian  section  if  you  were  by  magic  transplanted 
to  Naples  or  Genoa. 

Nor  is  it  simply  the  East  Side  in  lower 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  199 


New  York  that  is  so  manifestly  foreign.  Go  a  Foreign  city 
where  you  will  on  Manhattan  Island  and 
you  will  see  few  names  on  business  signs 
that  do  not  betray  their  foreign  derivation. 
Two  out  of  every  three  persons  you  meet  will 
be  foreign.  You  will  see  the  Italian  gangs  clean- 
ing the  streets,  the  Irish  will  control  the  motor 
of  your  trolley-car  and  collect  your  fares,  the 
policeman  will  be  Irish  or  German,  the  waiters 
where  you  dine  will  be  French  or  German,  Italian 
or  English,  the  clerks  in  the  vast  majority  of  the 
shopping  places  will  be  foreign,  the  people  you 
meet  will  constantly  remind  you  of  the  rarity  of 
the  native  American  stock.  You  are  ready  to 
believe  the  statement  that  there  are  in  New  York 
more  persons  of  German  descent  than  of  native 
descent,  and  more  Germans  than  in  any  city  of 
Germany  except  Berlin.  Here  are  nearly  twice 
as  many  Irish  as  in  Dublin,  about  as  many  Jews 
as  in  Warsaw,  and  more  Italians  than  in  Naples 
or  Venice.  In  government,  in  sentiment,  in  prac- 
tice, as  in  population  (thirty-seven  per  cent,  for- 
eign-bom and  eighty  per  cent,  of  foreign  birth  or 
parentage),  the  metropolis  is  predominantly  for- 
eign, and  in  elections  the  foreign  vote,  shrewdly 
manipulated  for  the  most  part,  controls.  Nor  is 
this  true  of  New  York  alone.  In  thirty-three  of  other 
our  largest  cities  the  foreign  population  is  larger 
than  the  native ;  in  Milwaukee  and  Fall  River  the 
foreign  percentage  rises  as  high  as  eighty-five 


200 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Failure  in  City 
Government 


"Where  the 
Newcomers 
First  Go 


per  cent.  In  all  these  cities  the  foreign  colonies 
are  as  distinct  and  practically  as  isolated  socially 
as  though  they  were  in  Russia  or  Poland,  Italy 
or  Hungary.  Foreign  in  language,  customs, 
habits,  and  institutions,  these  colonies  are  sepa- 
rated from  each  other,  as  well  as  from  the  Ameri- 
can population,  by  race,  customs,  and  religion. 

To  believe  that  this  makes  no  particular  differ- 
ence so  far  as  the  development  of  our  national 
life  is  concerned  is  to  shut  one's  eyes  to  obvious 
facts.  As  such  an  impartial  and  intelligent 
student  of  our  institutions  as  Mr.  James  Bryce 
has  pointed  out,  the  conspicuous  failure  of  dem- 
ocracy in  America  thus  far  is  seen  in  the  bad 
government  of  our  great  cities.  And  it  is  in  these 
centers  that  the  mass  of  the  immigrants  learn 
their  first  and  often  last  lessons  of  American  life. 

The  strong  tendency  of  immigrants  is  to  settle 
in  or  near  the  ports  of  entry.  Where  in  the  great 
cities  do  these  newcomers  find  a  dwelling  place? 
What  will  their  first  lessons  in  American  life  be? 
If  we  deal  largely  with  New  York,  it  is  simply 
because  here  are  the  typical  conditions  and  here 
the  larger  proportion  of  arrivals.  Once  admitted 
at  Ellis  Island,  the  alien  is  free  to  go  where  he 
will ;  or  rather,  where  he  can,  for  his  place  of 
residence  is  restricted,  after  all.  If  he  is  an 
Italian,  he  will  naturally  and  almost  of  necessity 
go  to  one  of  the  Little  Italics ;  if  a  Jew,  to  the 
ghetto  of  the  East  Side ;  if  a  Bohemian,  to  Little 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  201 


Bohemia ;  and  so  on.  In  other  words,  he  will  go, 
naturally  and  almost  inevitably,  to  the  colonies 
which  tend  to  perpetuate  race  customs  and  preju- 
dices, and  to  prevent  assimilation.  Worse  yet, 
these  colonies  are  in  the  tenement  and  slum  dis- 
tricts, the  last  environment  of  all  conceivable  in 
which  this  raw  material  of  American  citizenship 
should  be  placed. 

//.    Tenement-House  Life 

To  those  who  have  not  made  personal  investi-  vice-Breeding 
gation,  the  present  conditions,  in  spite  of  laws 
and  efforts  to  ameliorate  the  worst  evils,  are  well 
nigh  unbelievable.    The  cellar  population,  the 
blind  alley  population,  the  swarming  masses  in 
buildings  that  are  little  better  than  rat-traps,  the  / 
herding  of  whole  families  in  single  rooms,  in  j 
which  the  miserable  beings  sleep,  eat,  cook,  and  ^ 
make  clothing  for  contractors,  or  cigars  that 
would  never  go  into  men's  mouths  if  the  men 
saw  where  they  were  made — these  things  seem 
almost  impossible  in  a  civilized  and  Christian 
land.   It  is  horrible  to  be  obliged  to  think  of  the 
human  misery  and  hopelessness  and  grind  to 
which  hundreds  of  thousands  are  subjected  in  the 
city  of  New  York  day  in  and  out,  without  rest 
or  change.    It  is  no  wonder  that  criminals  and 
degenerates  come  from  these  districts ;  it  is  a 
marvel,  rather,  that  so  few  result,  and  that  so 
much  of  human  kindness  and  goodness  exists  in 


202 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


spite  of  crushing  conditions.  There  is  a  bright 
as  well  as  dark  side  even  to  the  most  disgraceful 
districts;  but  there  is  no  denying  that  the  dark 
vastly  predominates,  and  that  the  struggle  for 
righteousness  is  too  hard  for  the  average  human 
being.  Nearly  everything  is  against  the  peasant 
immigrant  thrust  into  the  throng  which  has  no 
welcome  for  him,  no  decent  room,  and  yet  from 
which  he  has  little  chance  to  get  away.  He  is 
commonly  cleaner  morally  when  he  lands  than 
after  six  months  of  the  life  here.  Why  should 
he  not  be?  What  has  American  Christianity 
done  to  safeguard  or  help  him? 

The  existence  of  the  tenement-house  evils,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  is  chargeable  primarily 
to  the  owner  and  landlord,  not  to  the  foreign 
occupant.  The  landlords  are  especially  to  blame 
for  the  ill  consequences.  The  immigrant  cannot 
dictate  terms  or  conditions.  He  has  to  go  where 
he  can.  The  prices  charged  for  rent  are  exorbi- 
tant, and  should  secure  decency  and  healthful 
quarters.  No  property  is  so  remunerative.  This 
rent  money  is  literally  blood  money  in  thousands 
of  instances,  and  yet  every  effort  to  improve 
things  is  bitterly  fought.  Why  should  not  social- 
ism and  anarchism  grow  in  such  environment? 
Of  course  many  of  the  immigrants  are  familiar 
with  poor  surroundings  and  do  not  apparently 
object  to  dirt  and  crowding.  But  that  does  not 
make  these  conditions  less  oerilous  to  American 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City 


203 


life.    Self-respect  has  a  hard  struggle  for  sur- 
vival in  these  sections,  and  if  the  immigrant  does 
not  possess  or  loses  that,  he  is  of  the  undesirable 
class.    Mr.  Robert  Hunter  makes  the  statement 
that  no  other  city  in  the  world  has  so  many  dark  : 
and  vi^indowless  rooms,  or  so  many  persons  I 
crowded  on  the  acre,  or  so  many  families  deprived  1 
of  light  and  air  as  New  York.  He  says  there  are  ) 
360,000  dark  rooms  in  Greater  New  York.  And 
these  are  almost  entirely  occupied  by  the  foreign- 
ers.  But  unsanitary  conditions  prevail  also  in  all 
the  cities,  large  and  small,  and  especially  in  the 
mine  and  mill  and  factory  towns,  wherever  large 
masses  of  the  poorest  workers  live. 

Concerning  possible  legislation  to  correct  these  L*g«i  Reme- 
city  evils  of  environment,  Mr.  Sargent  says :  PoM>t>i« 
"So  far  as  the  overcrowding  in  city  tenements 
is  concerned,  municipal  ordinances  in  our  large 
cities  prescribing  the  amount  of  space  which  ra- 
pacious landlords  should,  under  penalties  suf- 
ficiently heavy  to  enforce  obedience,  be  required 
to  give  each  tenant,  would  go  far  toward  attain- 
ing the  object  in  view.  Whether  such  a  plan 
could  be  brought  into  existence  through  the 
efforts  of  our  general  government,  or  whether  the 
Congress  could  itself  legislate  directly,  upon  sani- 
tary and  moral  grounds,  against  the  notorious 
practice  of  housing  aliens  with  less  regard  for 
health  and  comfort  than  is  shown  in  placing  brute 
animals  in  pens,  the  Bureau  is  unprepared  to  say.  \ 


204  Aliens  or  Americans? 


It  is,  however,  convinced  that  no  feature  of  the 
immigration  question  so  insistently  demands  pub- 
lic attention  and  effective  action.  The  evil  to  be 
removed  is  one  that  is  steadily  and  rapidly  on  the 
increase,  and  its  removal  will  strike  at  the  root 
of  fraudulent  elections,  poverty,  disease,  and 
crime  in  our  large  cities,  and  on  the  other  hand 
largely  supply  that  increasing  demand  for  labor 
to  develop  the  natural  resources  of  our  country."^ 

Not  to  draw  the  picture  all  in  the  darker 
shades,  let  us  look  at  the  best  type  of  Italian  tene- 
ment life.  We  are  not  left  to  guesswork  in  the 
matter.  Settlement  workers  and  students  of 
social  questions  are  actually  living  in  the  tene- 
ment and  slum  sections,  so  as  to  know  by  experi- 
ence and  not  hearsay.  One  of  these  investiga- 
tors, Mrs.  Lillian  W.  Betts,  author  of  two 
enlightening  books, ^  has  lived  for  a  year  in  one 
of  the  most  crowded  tenements  in  one  of  the 
most  densely  populated  sections  of  the  Italian 
quarter.  We  condense  some  of  her  statements, 
which  reveal  the  foreign  life  of  to-day  in  New 
York's  Little  Italy,  with  its  400,ocx?  souls. 

"A  year's  residence  in  an  Italian  tenement 
taught  me  first  of  all  the  isolation  of  a  foreign 
quarter ;  how  completely  cut  off  one  may  be  from 
everything  that  makes  New  York  New  York. 
The  necessities  of  life  can  be  bought  without 
leaving  the  square  that  is  your  home.    After  a 

iCommissioner-General's  Report  for  igos,  p.  58. 

^The  Leaven  of  a  Great  City,  and  The  Story  of  an  East  Side  Family. 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  205 


Httle  it  occasioned  no  surprise  to  meet  grand- 
parents whose  own  children  were  born  in  New 
York,  who  had  never  crossed  to  the  east  side  of  j 
the  Bowery,  never  seen  Broadway,  nor  ever  been  1 


south  of  Houston  Street.    There  was  no  reason  I 
why  they  should  go.   Every  interest  in  their  life  I 
centered  within  four  blocks.    I  went  with  a  ' 
neighbor  to  Saint  Vincent's  Hospital,  where  her 
husband  had  been  taken.   I  had  to  hold  her  hand 
in  the  cars,  she  was  so  terrified.    She  had  lived 
sixteen  years  in  this  ward  and  never  been  on  a 
street-car  before.    Of  a  family  of  five  sons  and  , 
two  daughters,  besides  the  parents,  in  this  coun- 
try fifteen  years,  none  spoke  English  but  the 
youngest,  born  here,  and  she  indifferently.  Lit- 
tle Italy  was  all  of  America  they  knew,  and  of 
curiosity  they  had  none. 

"The  house  in  which  we  lived  was  built  for  Children 
twenty-eight  families  and  occupied  by  fifty-six.  j^"^"?^' 
One  man  who  had  been  in  the  country  twenty- 
eight  years  could  not  speak  or  understand  a  word 
of  English.    Nothing  but  compulsion  made  his 
children  use  Italian,  and  the  result  was  pathetic. 
The  eldest  child  was  an  enthusiastic  American, 
and  the  two  civilizations  were  always  at  war. 
This  boy  knew  more  of  American  history,  its 
heroes  and  poetry,  than  anyone  of  his  age  I  ever  , 
met.    This  boy  had  never  been  five  blocks  from  ; 
the  house  in  which  we  lived.    He  removed  his  \ 
hat  and  shoes  when  he  went  to  bed  in  winter ;  in 


2o6  Aliens  or  Americans? 


summer  he  took  of¥  his  coat.  A  brother  and 
two  sisters  shared  the  folding  bed  with  him.  His 
father  hired  the  three  rooms  and  sublet  to  a  man 
with  a  wife  and  three  children.  The  women 
quarreled  all  the  time,  but  worked  in  the  same 
room,  finishing  trousers  and  earning  about  forty- 
five  cents  a  day  each. 
Evils  of  "How  do  they  live?    One  widow,  with  three 

Overcrowding:  jj^  j^gj.  Qy^^  family,  took  nine  men  boarders  in  her 
three  rooms.  A  nephew  and  his  wife  also  kept 
house  there,  the  rent  being  $i8  a  month.  An- 
other neighbor,  whose  family  consisted  of  four 
adults  and  two  children,  had  seven  lodgers  or 
boarders  at  one  time.  These  men  owned  mat- 
tresses, rolled  up  by  day,  spread  on  the  floor  at 
night.  One  of  them  had  a  bride  coming  from 
Italy.  Two  men  with  their  mattresses  were 
ejected  and  space  made  for  the  ornate  brass  and 
green  bedstead.  The  wedding  was  the  occasion 
of  great  rejoicing.  Next  day  the  bride  was  put 
to  work  sewing  'pants.'  At  the  end  of  a  month 
I  found  she  had  not  left  those  rooms  from  the 
moment  she  entered  them,  and  that  she  worked, 
Sundays  included,  fourteen  hours  a  day.  She 
was  a  mere  child,  at  that.  The  Italian  woman  is 
not  a  good  housekeeper,  but  she  is  a  homemaker ; 
she  does  not  fret ;  dirt,  disorder,  noise,  company, 
never  disturb  her.  She  must  share  everything 
with  those  about  her.  She  cooks  one  meal  a  day 
and  tliat  at  night.    Pot  or  pan  may  be  placed 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  207 


in  the  middle  of  the  table  and  each  may  help  him- 
self from  it,  but  the  food  is  what  her  husband 
wants. 

"Together  they  will  wash  the  dishes  or  he  will  F»^"y 
take  the  baby  out.  The  mother,  who  has  sewed 
all  day,  will  wash  till  midnight,  while  the  husband 
sits  dozing,  smoking,  talking.  But  he  hangs  out 
the  clothes.  They  work  together,  these  Italian 
husbands  and  wives.  Their  wants  are  the  barren 
necessaries  of  life ;  shelter,  food,  clothing  to 
cover  nakedness.  The  children's  clothes  are 
washed  when  they  go  to  bed.  Life  is  reduced 
to  its  lowest  terms.  They  can  move  as  silently 
as  do  the  Arabs  and  do  so  in  the  night  watches. 
But  they  are  rarely  penniless ;  they  have  a  little 
fund  always  in  the  bank.  They  put  their  young 
children  in  institutions  from  weaning-time  until 
they  are  old  enough  to  work,  then  bring  them 
home  to  swell  the  family  income.  Recently  a 
father,  whose  children  had  thus  been  cared  for 
by  the  state,  bought  a  three-story  tenement.  This 
is  typical  thrift.  There  was  never  a  day  when  ajl 
the  children  of  school  age  were  in  school. 
School  was  a  prison  house  to  most  of  them. 
There  was  not  room  for  them,  even  if  they 
wanted  to  go. 

"The  streets  in  which  the  Italians  live  are  the  City  Neglect 
most  neglected.    It  is  claimed  that  cleanliness  is 
impossible  where  the  Italian  lives.    The  truth  is 
that  preparation  for  cleanliness  in  our  foreign 


2o8  Aliens  or  Americans? 


colonies  is  wholly  inadequate.  The  police  despise 
the  Italian  except  for  his  voting  power.  He  feels 
the  contempt,  but  with  the  wisdom  of  his  race 
he  keeps  his  crimes  foreign,  and  defies  this  de- 
partment more  successfully  than  the  public  gen- 
erally knows.  He  is  a  peaceable  citizen  in  spite 
of  the  peculiar  race  crimes  which  startle  the  pub- 
lic. The  criminals  are  as  one  to  a  thousand  of 
these  people.  On  Sundays  watch  these  colonies. 
The  streets  are  literally  packed  with  crowds  from 
house  line  to  house  line,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see, 
but  not  a  policeman  in  sight,  nor  occasion  for 
one.  Laughter,  song,  discussion,  exchange  of 
epithet,  but  no  disturbance.  They  mind  their 
own  business  as  no  other  nation,  and  carry  it  to 
the  point  of  crime  when  they  protect  the 
criminal. "1 

PossibUities  of  This  is  testimony  directly  from  life  and  has 
Uplifting  especial  value.  It  reveals  the  difficulties,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  possibilities,  of  reaching  and 
Americanizing  these  immigrants,  who  are  better 
than  their  surroundings,  and  promising  if  prop- 
erly cared  for. 

Sources  of       The  imprcssiou  that  steadily  deepens  with 
Degradation  Q]jggj.ya^iQj^  ^^d  study  is  that  of  the  evil  and 
■  degrading  surroundings.    Not  only  are  there  the 

evil  moral  influences  of  overcrowding,  but  also 
the  contact  with  elements  of  population  already 
deteriorated  by  a  generation  of  tenement  house 

University  Settlement  Studies,  January,  ipoS. 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  209 

life.  The  fresh  arrivals  are  thrown  into  contact 
with  the  corrupt  remnants  of  Irish  immigration 
which  now  make  up  the  beggars,  drunkards, 
thugs,  and  thieves  of  those  quarters.  The  results 
can  easily  be  predicted.  The  Italian  laboring 
population  is  temperate  when  it  comes  to  this 
country ;  but  under  the  evil  conditions  and  influ- 
ences of  the  tenement  district  disorderly  resorts 
have  been  opened,  and  drinking  and  other  vices 
are  spreading.  The  Hebrews  show  tendencies  to 
vices  from  which  formerly  they  were  free.  The 
law  does  not  protect  these  immigrants,  and  it  is 
charged  that  the  city  permits  every  kind  of 
inducement  for  the  extension  of  immorality, 
drunkenness,  and  crime.  Thus  the  immigrant  is 
likely  to  deteriorate  and  degenerate  in  the  process 
of  Americanization,  instead  of  becoming  better 
in  this  new  world.  He  has  indeed  little  chance. 
If  he  does  not  become  a  pauper  or  criminal  or 
drunkard,  it  will  be  because  he  is  superior  to  his 
environment. 

///.    The  Sweat-shop  Peril 

An  immigrant  peril  is  the  sweat-shop  labor  An  Awful 
which  this  class  performs.  "Sweating"  is  the 
system  of  sub-contract  wherein  the  work  is  let 
out  to  contractors  to  be  done  in  small  shops  or 
at  home.  According  to  the  Illinois  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  "in  practice  sweating  consists  of 
the  farming  out  by  competing  manufacturers  to 


2IO 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


competing  contractors  of  the  material  for  gar- 
ments, which  in  turn  is  distributed  among  com- 
peting men  and  women  to  be  made  up."  This 
system  is  opposed  to  the  factory  system,  where 
the  manufacturer  einploys  his  own  workmen,  sees 
the  goods  made,  and  knows  the  conditions.  The 
sweating  system  is  one  of  the  iniquities  of  com- 
mercial greed,  and  the  helpless  foreigner  of  cer- 
tain classes  is  its  victim.  The  contractor  or 
sweater  in  our  cities  is  an  organizer  and  employer 
of  immigrants.  His  success  depends  upon  get- 
ting the  cheapest  help,  and  life  is  of  no  account 
to  him,  nor  apparently  to  the  man  above  him. 
The  clothing  may  be  made  in  foul  and  damp  and 
consumption  or  fever-infested  cellars  and  tene- 
ment-styes, by  men,  women  and  children  sick  or 
uncleanly,  but  the  only  care  of  the  sweater  is  that 
it  be  made  cheaply  and  thus  his  returns  be 
secured.  It  is  a  standing  reproach  to  our  Chris- 
tian civilization  that  the  sweating  system  and  the 
slums  are  still  existing  sores  in  American  cen- 
ters of  population.  So  far  the  law  has  been 
unable  to  control  or  check  greed,  and  the  plague 
spots  grow  worse.  Here  is  a  typical  case,  taken 
from  the  report  of  the  Industrial  Commission : 
A  Striking  "A  Polish  Jcw  in  Chicago,  at  a  time  when  very 
Example  ^j^^  Poles  wcrc  tailors,  opened  a  shop  in  a 

Polish  neighborhood.  He  lost  money  during  the 
time  he  was  teaching  the  people  the  trade,  but 
finally  was  a  gainer.    Before  he  opened  the  shop 


tff. 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  211 


he  studied  the  neighborhood ;  he  found  the  very 
poorest  quarters  where  most  of  the  immigrant 
Poles  lived.  He  took  no  one  to  work  except  the 
newly  arrived  Polish  women  and  girls.  The 
more  helpless  and  dependent  they  were,  the  more 
sure  of  getting  work  from  him.  In  speaking 
about  his  plans  he  said :  'It  will  take  these  girls 
years  to  learn  English  and  to  learn  how  to  go 
about  and  find  work.  In  that  way  I  will  be  able 
to  get  their  labor  very  cheap.'  His  theory 
turned  out  to  be  practical.  He  has  since  built 
several  tenement-houses." 

The  cheap  tailor  business  is  divided  among  the 
Italians,  Russians,  Poles,  and  Swedes,  Germans 
and  Bohemians.  The  women  and  children  are 
made  to  work,  and  hours  are  not  carefully 
counted.  Long  work,  poor  food,  poor  light,  foul 
air,  bad  sanitation — all  make  this  kind  of  life  far 
worse  than  any  life  which  the  immigrants  knew 
in  Europe.  Better  physical  starvation  there  than 
the  mental  and  spiritual  blight  of  these  modern 
conditions  here.  That  so  much  of  hopeful 
humanity  is  found  in  these  unwholesome  and  con- 
gested wards  proves  the  quality  worth  saving 
and  elevating. 

Here  is  an  illustration  of  the  resolute  spirit 
which  conditions  cannot  crush.  A  young  Polish 
girl  was  brought  by  her  widowed  mother  to 
America,  in  hope  of  bettering  their  condition. 
The  mother  died  soon  afterward,  leaving  the 


A  Foreign 
Importation 


Sto<-y  of  a 

Sweat-shop 

Girl 


212  Aliens  or  Americans? 


orphan  dependent.  Then  came  the  disappoint- 
ments, one  after  another,  and  finally,  the  almost 
inevitable  result  in  such  cases,  the  fall  into 
the  slums  and  the  sweat-shops.  By  hard 
work  six  days  in  the  week,  fourteen  or  more 
hours  a  day,  this  girl  of  tender  age  could  make 
$4  a  week !  She  had  to  get  up  at  half  past  five 
every  morning  and  make  herself  a  cup  of  coffee, 
which  with  a  bit  of  bread  and  sometimes  fruit 
made  her  breakfast.   Listen  to  her  story : 

"The  machines  go  like  mad  all  day,  because  the 
faster  you  work  the  more  money  you  get.  Some- 
times in  my  haste  the  finger  gets  caught  and  the 
needle  goes  right  through  it.  We  all  have  acci- 
dents like  that.  Sometimes  a  finger  has  to  come 
ofif.  .  .  .  For  the  last  two  winters  I  have  been 
going  to  night  school.  I  have  learned  reading, 
waiting,  and  arithmetic.  I  can  read  quite  well  in 
English  now,  and  I  look  at  the  newspapers  every 
day.  I  am  going  back  to  night  school  again  this 
winter.  Some  of  the  women  in  my  class  are 
more  than  forty  years  of  age.  Like  me,  they  did 
not  have  a  chance  to  learn  anything  in  the  old 
country.  It  is  good  to  have  an  education;  it 
makes  you  feel  higher.  Ignorant  people  are  all 
low.  People  say  now  that  I  am  clever  and  fine  in 
conversation.  There  is  a  little  expense  for 
charity,  too.  If  any  worker  is  injured  or  sick  we 
all  give  money  to  help."^ 

'Hamilton  Holt,  Undistinguished  Americans,  43  £E. 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  213 


Surely  this  is  good  material.  A  changed  and  Possibilities 
Christian  environment  would  make  shining  lights 
out  of  these  poor  immigrants,  who  are  kept  in  the 
subways  of  American  life,  instead  of  being 
given  a  fair  chance  out  in  the  open  air  and  sun- 
light of  decently  paid  service. 

Practically  all  of  the  work  in  tenements  is  car-  *■  Foreign 
ried  on  by  foreign-born  men  and  women,  and 
more  than  that,  by  the  latest  arrivals  and  the 
lowest  conditioned  of  the  foreign-born.  Tene- 
ment-house legislation  has  been  practically  forced 
upon  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, whose  ports  of  entry  receive  the  first 
impact  of  immigration,  by  two  of  the  races  that 
have  been  crowding  into  the  cities — the  Italian 
and  Hebrew.  The  Italian  woman,  working  in 
her  close  tenement,  has  by  her  cheap  labor  almost 
driven  out  all  other  nationalities  from  that  class 
of  work  still  done  in  the  home,  the  hand  sewing 
on  coats  and  trousers.  Of  the  20,000  licenses 
granted  by  the  New  York  factory  inspector  for 
"home  finishing"  in  New  York  City,  ninety-five 
per  cent,  are  held  by  Italians.  This  work  has  to 
be  done  because  the  husband  is  not  making 
enough  to  support  the  family.  These  men  work 
mostly  as  street  laborers,  hucksters,  and  peddlers. 
To  make  both  ends  meet  not  only  the  wife  but 
children  have  to  work. 

Here  is  a  typical  case  of  this  class  of  worker  ATypicaiCa»e 
and  the  earnings,  from  an  inspector's  note-book : 


214  Aliens  or  Americans? 


"Antonia'  Scarafino,  235  Mulberry  Street;  fin- 
isher ;  gets  five  cents  per  pair  pants,  bastes  bot- 
toms, puts  linings  on ;  one  hour  to  make ;  two 
years  at  this  business ;  four  in  this  country ;  mar- 
ried, with  baby ;  sister  works  with  her ;  can  both 
together  make  $4  per  week ;  husband  peddles  fish 
and  makes  only  $1  to  $2  a  week ;  got  married 
here;  two  rooms,  $8.50  rent;  kitchen  10x12; 
bedroom  8x10;  gets  all  the  work  she  wants. 
No  sunlight  falls  into  her  squalid  rooms,  and 
there  is  no  stopping,  from  early  morning  till  late 
at  night." 

IV.    Three  Constant  Perils 

The  Natural!-  Illegal  and  fraudulent  naturalization  is  another 
zation  Evil  ^^.j  ^yi^ici^  tj^g  foreigner  in  the  city  becomes  a 
party,  although  the  blame  belongs  chiefly  to  the 
ward  politicians  who  make  him  a  particeps 
criminis.  The  recognized  managers  of  the  for- 
«  eign  vote  of  various  nationalities — almost  always 
saloonkeepers — hold  citizenship  cheap,  perjury 
undiscovered  as  good  as  truth,  and  every  vote  a 
clear  gain  for  the  party  and  themselves.  So  the 
naturalization  mills  are  kept  running  night  and 
day  preceding  a  national  or  municipal  election. 
Describing  this  process,  ex-United  States  Senator 
Chandler  says  that  in  New  York  during  a  single 
month  just  before  election  about  seven  thousand 
naturalization  papers  were  issued,  nearly  all  by 
one  judge,  who  examined  each  applicant  and 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  tiie  City  215 


witnesses  to  his  satisfaction,  and  signed  his 
orders  at  the  rate  of  two  per  minute,  and  as 
many  as  618  in  one  day.  Many  classes  of  frauds 
were  committed.  Witnesses  were  professional 
perjurers,  each  swearing  in  hundreds  of  cases, 
testifying  to  a  five  years'  residence  when  they 
had  first  met  the  applicants  only  a  few  hours 
before.  During  the  past  year  some  of  these  pro- 
fessional perjurers  and  political  manipulators 
were  tried  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary ;  but  the 
frauds  will  go  on.   Here  is  an  illustration : 

"Patrick  Hefferman,  of  a  given  street  in  New  Making 
York,  was  twenty-one  years  old  September  2, 
1891,  and  came  to  this  country  August  i,  1888. 
He  was  naturalized  October  20,  1891.  On  that 
day  he  was  introduced  by  Thomas  Keeler  to  a 
stranger,  who  went  with  him  to  court  and  signed 
a  paper;  they  both  went  before  the  judge,  who 
asked  the  stranger  something.  Hefferman  signed 
nothing,  said  nothing,  but  kissed  a  book  and 
came  out  a  citizen,  having  taken  no  oath  except 
that  of  renunciation  and  allegiance." 

Thus  are  the  sacred  rights  of  citizenship  Fraud 
obtained  by  thousands  upon  thousands,  not  in 
New  York  alone,  but  in  all  our  cities.  More  than 
that,  fraudulent  use  is  freely  made  of  naturaliza- 
tion papers.  The  Italian  immigrant,  for  exam- 
ple, finds  his  vote  is  wanted,  and  obtains  a  false 
paper.  He  returns  to  Italy  to  spend  his  earnings, 
and  there  is  offered  a  sum  of  money  for  the  use 


2i6  Aliens  or  Americans? 


of  his  papers.  These  are  given  to  an  emigrant 
who  probably  could  not  pass  the  examination  at 
Ellis  Island,  but  who  as  a  naturalized  citizen, 
if  he  is  not  detected  in  the  fraud,  cannot  be  shut 
out.  Then  he  sends  the  papers  back  to  Italy. 
It  is  admitted  that  there  is  a  regular  traffic  in 
,  naturalization  papers.  In  every  way  the  alien  is 
put  on  the  wrong  track,  and  his  American  experi- 
ences are  such  as  would  naturally  make  him 
lawless  and  criminal  rather  than  a  good  citizen. 
He  needs  nothing  more  than  protection  against 
corrupting  and  venal  agencies,  which  find  their 
origin  in  politics  and  the  saloon. 
The  Saloon  The  foreign  element  furnishes  the  saloons  with 
Immigrant  victims.  In  his  graphic  book  describing  tenement 
life  in  New  York  Mr.  Riis  shows  the  rapid  mul- 
tiplication of  the  saloons  in  the  slums  where  the 
foreigners  are  crowded  into  tenements,  nine  per 
cent,  more  densely  packed  than  the  most  densely 
populated  districts  of  London.  In  the  chapter, 
"The  Reign  of  Rum,"i  he  says : 
Testimony  "  'Where  God  builds  a  church  the  devil  builds 
°^  ^"^  next  door  a  saloon'  is  an  old  saying  that  has  lost 
its  point  in  New  York.  Either  the  devil  was  on 
the  ground  first,  or  he  has  been  doing  a  good  deal 
more  in  the  way  of  building.  I  tried  once  to  find 
out  how  the  account  stood,  and  counted  to  lii 
Protestant  churches,  chapels,  and  places  of  wor- 
ship of  every  kind  below  Fourteenth  Street, 

ijacob  Riia  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  chap.  XVIIL 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  217 


4,065  saloons.  The  worst  half  of  the  tenement 
population  lives  down  there,  and  it  has  to  this 
day  the  worst  half  of  the  saloons.  Up  town  the 
account  stands  a  little  better,  but  there  are  easily 
ten  saloons  to  every  church  to-day. 

"As  to  the  motley  character  of  the  tenement  Hunting  for 

an  American 

population,  when  I  asked  the  agent  of  a  notorious 
Fourth  Ward  alley  how  many  people  might  be 
living  in  it,  I  was  told:  One  hundred  and  forty 
families — one  hundred  Irish,  thirty-eight  Italian, 
and  two  that  spoke  the  German  tongue.  Barring 
the  agent  herself,  there  was  not  a  native-born 
individual  in  the  court.  The  answer  was  charac- 
teristic of  the  cosmopolitan  character  of  lower 
New  York,  very  nearly  so  of  the  whole  of  it, 
wherever  it  runs  to  alleys  and  courts.  One  may 
find  for  the  asking  an  Italian,  German,  French, 
African,  Spanish,  Bohemian,  Russian,  Scandina- 
vian, Jewish,  and  Chinese  colony.  The  one  thing 
you  shall  ask  for  in  vain  in  the  chief  city  of 
America  is  a  distinctively  American  community." 

The  immigrant  is  nearly  always  poor,  and  is  The  Perii  of 
thrust  into  the  poverty  of  the  city.  We  must  ^"^'^"^ 
distinguish  between  pauperism  and  poverty.  As 
Mr.  Hunter  points  out,  in  his  stirring  chapter 
on  this  subject,!  "pauperism  is  dependence  with- 
out shame,  poverty  is  to  live  miserable  we  know 
not  why,  to  have  the  dread  of  hunger,  to  work 

*Robert  Hunter,  Poverty,  chap.  I.  This  is  a  book  that  every 
American  should  read.  The  author  is  indebted  to  it  for  much  of 
the  material  in  this  chapter. 


2l8 


Aliens  or  Americans  ? 


sore  and  yet  gain  nothing."  Fear  of  pauperism, 
of  the  necessity  of  accepting  charity,  drives  the 
self-respecting  poor  insane  and  to  suicide.  It 
is  to  be  said  that  the  majority  of  the  immigrants 
are  not  paupers,  but  self-respecting  poor.  More- 
over, the  new  immigration  is  not  nearly  so  ready 
to  accept  pauperism  as  are  the  Irish,  who  make 
up  the  largest  percentage  of  this  class,  as  already 
shown.  But  the  poor  immigrants  are  compelled, 
by  circumstances,  to  come  in  contact  with,  if 
not  to  dwell  directly  among,  this  pauper  element, 
lost  to  sense  of  degradation.  The  paupers  make 
up  the  slums.  And  because  the  rents  are  cheaper 
in  the  miserable  old  rookeries  that  still  defy  pub- 
lic decency,  the  Italians  especially  crowd  into 
these  pestilential  quarters,  which  are  the  hotbeds 
of  disease,  physical  and  moral  filth,  drunkenness, 
and  crime.  Thus  pauperism  and  poverty  dwell 
too  closely  together. 
Some  Causes  Upon  the  unskilled  masses  the  weight  of 
of  Poverty  ^a^t  is  Constantly  pressing.  Unemployment, 
sickness,  the  least  stoppage  of  the  scant  income, 
means  distress.  It  is  estimated  that  in  our  coun- 
try not  less  than  4,000.000  persons  are  depend- 
ents or  paupers,  and  not  less  than  10,000,000  are 
in  poverty.  This  means  that  they  cannot  earn 
enough  regularly  to  maintain  the  standard  of 
life  that  means  the  highest  efficiency,  and  that 
at  some  time  they  are  liable  to  need  aid.  Mr. 
Riis  has  shown  that  about  one  third  of  the  people 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  219 


of  New  York  City  were  dependent  upon  charity 
at  some  time  during  the  eight  years  previous  to 
1890.  The  report  of  the  United  Hebrew  Chari- 
ties for  1901  shows  similar  conditions  existing 
among  the  Jewish  population  of  New  York. 
Pauperism  is  a  peril,  and  poverty  is  a  source  of 
apathy  and  despair.  The  unskilled  immigrant 
tends  to  increase  the  poverty  by  creating  a  sur- 
plus of  cheap  labor,  and  also  falls  under  the 
blight  of  the  evil  he  increases. 

Treating  of  this  subject,  the  Charities  Asso-  Pauperism 
ciation  of  Boston  reports  that  it  is  hopeless  """'^ 
to  attempt  to  relieve  pauperism  so  long  as  its 
ranks  are  increased  by  the  great  hosts  coming 
into  the  country,  with  only  a  few  dollars  to 
depend  upon,  and  no  certain  work.  The  statis- 
tics of  the  public  almshouses  show  that  the  pro- 
portion of  foreign-born  is  greatly  in  excess  of  the 
native-born.  The  pathetic  feature  of  this  condi- 
tion is  that  what  is  wanted  is  not  charity  but 
employment  at  living  wages.  Greatly  is  it  to  the 
credit  of  the  immigrants  from  southeastern 
Europe  that  they  are  eager  for  work  and  reluc- 
tant to  accept  charity.  The  danger  is  that,  if 
allowed  to  come  and  then  left  without  oppor- 
tunity to  work,  they  will  of  necessity  fall  into 
the  careless,  shiftless,  vicious  class,  already  so 
large  and  dangerous. 

The  immigrants  in  the  city  tenements  are  espe- 
cially exposed  to  consumption,  that  "Great  White 


220  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Peril  of  the     Plasfue   which  yearly  kills  its  tens  of  thousands. 

"Great  White    ^     °  ,    ^.         ,  ,  , 

Plague"  -In  New  York  City  alone  ten  thousand  die  annu- 
ally of  tuberculosis ;  and  this  is  the  result  largely 
of  tenement  conditions.  Statisticians  estimate 
that  the  annual  money  loss  in  the  United  States 
from  tuberculosis,  counting  the  cost  of  nursing, 
food,  medicines,  and  attendance,  as  well  as  the 
loss  of  productive  labor,  is  $330,000,000.  Mr. 
Hunter  instances  a  case  where  an  entire  family 
was  wiped  out  by  this  disease  within  two  years 
and  a  half.  In  spite  of  his  efforts  to  get  the 
father,  who  was  the  first  one  infected  with  the 
disease,  to  go  to  a  hospital,  he  refused,  saying 
that  as  he  had  to  die,  he  was  going  to  die  with 
his  family.  The  Health  Board  said  it  had  no 
authority  forcibly  to  compel  the  man  to  go  to  a 
hospital ;  and  the  result  was  that  the  whole  fam- 
ily died  with  him.  This  plague  "is  the  result  of 
■  our  weakness,  our  ignorance,  our  selfishness, 
and  our  vices ;  there  is  no  need  of  its  existence, 
and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to  stamp  it  out " 
That  is  Mr.  Hunter's  conclusion,  with  which  we 
heartily  agree. 

V.    The  Cry  of  the  Children 

Peril  of  Another  peril  of  the  city,  and  of  the  entire 

Child  Neglect  (.Quntry  as  well,  that  comes  through  the  foreign- 
ers is  child  neglect  and  labor;  which  means  illit- 
eracy, stunted  body  and  mind,  and  often  wreck- 
age of  life.    Every  foreign  neighborhood  is  full 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  221 


of  children,  and  sad  enough  is  the  average  child 
of  poverty.  What  makes  the  tenement  district 
of  the  great  city  so  terrible  to  you  as  you  go 
into  it  is  the  sight  of  the  throngs  of  children,  who 
know  little  of  home  as  you  know  it,  have  irregu- 
lar and  scanty  meals,  and  surroundings  of  intem- 
perance, dirt,  foul  atmosphere  and  speech,  disease 
and  vice.  No  wonder  the  police  in  these  dis- 
tricts say  that  their  worst  trouble  arises  from 
the  boys  and  the  gangs  of  young  "toughs." 
There  is  every  reason  for  this  unwholesome  prod- 
uct. Mr.  Hunter  says  there  are  not  less  than 
half  a  million  children  in  Greater  New  York 
whose  only  playground  is  the  street.  Result,  the 
street  gang;  and  this  gang  is  the  really  vital 
influence  in  the  life  of  most  boys  in  the  large 
cities.  It  is  this  life,  which  develops,  as  Mr.  Riis 
says,  "dislike  of  regular  work,  physical  incapa- 
bility of  sustained  effort,  gambling  propensities, 
absence  of  energy,  and  carelessness  of  the  happi- 
ness of  others."  The  great  homeless,  yardless 
tenement,  where  the  children  of  the  immigrants 
are  condemned  to  live,  is  the  nursery  of  sickness 
and  crime.  The  child  is  left  for  good  influence 
to  the  school,  the  settlement,  or  the  mission.  For 
the  enormous  amount  of  juvenile  crime  in  the 
city,  which  it  requires  a  special  court  to  deal 
with,  the  conditions  are  more  responsible  than 
the  children,  or  even  than  the  parents,  who  are 
unable  to  maintain  home  life,  and  who,  through 


222  Aliens  or  Americans? 


the  pinch  of  poverty  or  the  impulse  of  avarice, 
give  over  the  education  of  the  children  to  school 
or  street.  Here  is  a  picture  of  the  life  on  its 
darker  side: 

Street  Life  "Crowdcd  in  the  tenements  where  the  bed- 
of  Children  j-^^j^g  ^^.^  Small  and  often  dark,  where  the  living 
room  is  also  a  kitchen,  a  laundry,  and  often  a 
garment-making  shop,  are  the  growing  children 
whose  bodies  cry  out  for  exercise  and  play.  They 
are  often  an  irritant  to  the  busy  mother,  and 
likely  as  not  the  object  of  her  carping  and  scold- 
ing. The  teeming  tenements  open  their  doors, 
and  out  into  the  dark  passageways  and  courts, 
through  foul  alleys  and  over  broken  sidewalks, 
flow  ever  renewed  streams  of  playing  children. 
Under  the  feet  of  passing  horses,  under  the 
wheels  of  passing  street-cars,  jostled  about  by 
the  pedestrian,  driven  on  by  the  policeman,  they 
annoy  everyone.  They  crowd  about  the  music 
or  drunken  brawls  in  the  saloons,  they  play  hide- 
and-seek  about  the  garbage  boxes,  they  shoot 
'craps'  in  the  alleys,  they  seek  always  and  every- 
where activity,  movement,  life."^ 
Imprisoned  But  worse  than  this  picture  is  that  of  child- 
cbiidhood    j^QQ^j  sweat-shop,  the  factory,  the  mine,  and 

other  places  of  employment.  Mr.  Hunter  has 
written  a  chapter  on  "The  Child"^  that  should  be 
studied  by  every  lover  of  humanity.  Its  facts 
ring  out  a  clarion  call  for  reform.   This  touches 

'Robert  Hunter,  Povtrty,  jg6.    'Idem,  chap.  V. 


1 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  323 


our  subject  most  closely  because,  as  he  says, 
"These  evils  of  child  life  are  doubly  dangerous 
and  serious  because  the  mass  of  people  in  poverty 
in  our  cities  are  immigrants.  The  children  of 
immigrants  are  a  remarkable  race  of  little  ones." 

Indeed  they  are,  and  they  give  you  the  bright 
side  of  the  picture,  in  spite  of  all  the  evil  condi- 
tions in  which  they  live.  The  present  writer  stood 
recently  opposite  the  entrance  to  a  public  school 
in  the  congested  East  Side,  where  not  one  of  all 
the  thousand  or  more  of  scholars  was  of  native 
stock.  As  the  crowds  of  little  girls  poured  out 
at  noontime  their  faces  made  a  fascinating  study. 
The  conspicuous  thing  about  them  was  the  smile 
and  fun  and  brightness.  The  dress  was  of  every 
description,  and  one  of  the  merriest-faced  of  all 
had  on  one  shoe  and  one  rubber  in  place  of  the 
second  shoe ;  but  from  the  faces  you  would 
never  suspect  into  what  kind  of  places  these 
children  were  about  to  go  for  all  they  know 
of  home.  The  hope  lies  in  the  children,  and  the 
schools  are  their  great  blessing  and  outlet,  even 
if  as  Mrs.  Betts  says,  many  of  them  of  certain 
classes  do  not  think  so.   Mr.  Hunter  says: 

"They  are  to  become  Americans,  and  through 
them,  more  than  through  any  other  agency,  their 
own  parents  are  being  led  into  a  knowledge  of 
American  ways  and  customs.  All  the  statistics 
available  prove  that  vice  and  crime  are  far  more 
common  among  the  children  of  immigrants  than 


Happy 

CbUdhood 


What  Kind 
of  Americans? 


224 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


among  the  children  of  native  parentage,  and  this 
is  due  no  less  to  the  yardless  tenement  and  street 
playground  than  to  widespread  poverty.  In  a 
mass  of  cases  the  father  and  mother  both  work 
in  that  feverish,  restless  way  of  the  new  arrival, 
ambitious  to  get  ahead.  To  overcome  poverty 
they  must  neglect  their  children.  Turned  out  of 
the  small  tenement  into  the  street,  the  child 
learns  the  street.  Nothing  escapes  his  sharp  eyes, 
and  almost  in  the  briefest  conceivable  time,  he 
is  an  American  ready  to  make  his  way  by  every 
known  means,  good  and  bad.  To  the  child  every- 
thing American  is  good  and  right.  There  comes 
a  time  when  the  parents  cannot  guide  him  or  in- 
struct him;  he  knows  more  than  they;  he  looks 
upon  their  advice  as  of  no  value.  If  ever  there 
was  a  self-made  man,  that  man  is  the  son  of  the 
immigrant.  But  the  street  and  the  street  gang 
have  a  great  responsibility ;  they  are  making  the 
children  of  a  hundred  various  languages  from 
every  part  of  the  world  into  American  citizens." 
A  Plain  Duty  How  long  will  American  Christianity  allow 
this  process  of  degeneracy  to  go  on,  before  realiz- 
ing the  peril  of  it,  and  providing  the  counteract- 
ing agencies  of  good?  That  is  the  question  the 
young  people  ought  to  consider  and  help  answer. 
Child  Labor  But  far  worse  than  all  else,  "the  nation  is 
engaged  in  a  traffic  for  the  labor  of  children." 
In  this  country  over  1,700,000  children  under 
fifteen  are  compelled  to  work  in  the  factories. 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  225 

mines,  workshops,  and  fields.  These  figures  may 
mean  little,  for  as  Margaret  McMillan  has  said, 
"You  cannot  put  tired  eyes,  pallid  cheeks,  and 
languid  little  limbs  into  statistics."  But  we  be- 
lieve that  if  our  Christian  people  could  be  brought 
for  one  moment  to  realize  what  the  inhumanity 
of  this  child  labor  is,  there  would  be  such  an 
avalanche  of  public  opinion  as  would  put  a  stop 
to  it.  This  evil  is  a  new  one  in  America,  begotten 
of  greed  for  money.  This  greed  is  shared  jointly 
by  the  capitalist  employer  and  the  parents,  but 
the  greater  responsibility  rests  upon  the  former, 
who  creates  the  possibility  and  fosters  the  evil. 

The  immigrants  furnish  the  parents  willing  to  Alien  Victims 
sell  their  children  into  child  slavery  in  the  fac- 
tory, or  the  worse  mill  or  mine — prisons  all, 
and  for  the  innocent.  Into  these  prisons  gather 
"tens  of  thousands  of  children,  strong  and  happy, 
or  weak,  underfed,  and  miserable.  Stop  their 
play  once  for  all,  and  put  them  out  to  labor  for 
so  many  cents  a  day  or  night,  and  pace  them  with 
a  tireless,  lifeless  piece  of  mechanism,  for  ten 
or  twelve  hours  at  a  stretch,  and  you  will  have 
a  present-day  picture  of  child  labor."  But  there 
is  yet  one  thing  which  must  be  added  to  the  pic- 
ture. Give  the  child-slave  worker  a  tenement 
for  a  home  in  the  filthy  streets  of  an  ordinary 
factory  city,  with  open  spaces  covered  with  tin 
cans,  bottles,  old  shoes,  garbage,  and  other  waste, 
the  gutters  running  sewers,  and  the  air  foul  with 


226  Aliens  or  Americans? 


odors  and  black  with  factory  smoke,  and  the  pic- 
ture is  fairly  complete.  It  is  a  dark  picture,  but 
hardly  so  dark  as  the  reality,  and  if  one  were 
to  describe  "back  of  the  yards"  in  Chicago,  or 
certain  mill  towns  or  mining  districts,  the  pic- 
ture would  be  even  darker  than  the  one  given. 
The  Shame  o7^  Think  of  it,  young  people  of  Christian  Amer- 
the  Century  ,        ^j^^  twentieth  century,  in  the  country  we 

like  to  think  the  most  enlightened  in  the  world, 
after  all  our  boasted  advancements  in  civiliza- 
tion, child  slavery — more  pitiful  in  some  respects 
than  African  slavery  ever  was — has  its  grip  on 
the  nation's  childhood. 
An  Appalling      'j'j^g  fccord  IS  amazing  to  one  who  has  never 

Record 

thought  about  this  subject.  Easily  a  hundred 
thousand  children  at  work  in  New  York,  in  all 
sorts  of  employments  unsuitable  and  injurious. 
Try  to  realize  these  totals,  taken  from  Mr.  Hun- 
ter, of  children  under  fifteen,  compelled  to  work 
in  employments  generally  recognized  as  in- 
jurious :  Over  7,000  in  this  country  in  laundries  ; 
nearly  2,000  in  bakeshops ;  367  in  saloons  as  bar- 
tenders and  other  ways ;  over  138.000  at  work 
as  waiters  and  servants  in  hotels  and  restaurants, 
with  long  hours  and  conditions  morally  bad ; 
42,000  employed  as  messengers,  with  work  hours 
often  unlimited  and  temptations  leading  to  im- 
morality and  vice ;  20,000  in  stores ;  2.500  on  the 
railroads ;  over  24,000  in  mines  and  quarries ; 
over  5,000  in  glass  factories;  about  10,000  in 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  227 


sawmills  and  the  wood-working  industries ;  over 
7,500  in  iron  and  steel  mills ;  over  1 1,000  in  cigar 
and  tobacco  factories ;  and  over  80,000  in  the  silk 
and  cotton  and  other  textile  mills. 

Now,  all  of  these  industries  are  physically  Soui  Murder 
injurious  to  childhood.  But  more  than  this,  Money 
schooling  has  been  made  impossible,  and  immoral- 
ity, disease,  and  death  reap  a  rich  harvest  from 
this  seed-sowing.  And  why  are  these  helpless 
children  thus  engaged  and  enslaved,  stunted, 
crippled,  and  corrupted,  deprived  of  education 
and  a  fair  chance  in  life?  Simply  because  their 
labor  is  cheap.  Mr.  Hunter  speaks  none  too 
strongly  when  he  calls  this  "murder,  cannibalism,^ 
destruction  of  soul  and  body."  And  it  is  the  chil- 
dren of  the  immigrants  who  are  thus  sacrificed 
to  Mammon,  the  pitiless  god  of  greed.  Shall 
our  Christian  young  people  have  no  voice  in 
righting  this  wrong?  Within  a  generation  they 
can  put  an  end  to  it,  if  they  will.  Here  is  home 
missionary  work  at  hand,  calling  for  highest 
endeavors. 


228 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  VI 

Aim  :  To  See  Clearly  the  Dangers  Arising  from 
Congestion  of  Foreigners  in  our  Cities,  and  the 
Best  Ways  of  Guarding  against  Them 

I.  Foreigners  in  Cities. 

1.  What  are  the  chief  causes  of  the  following: 
(i)  the  rapid  growth  of  great  cities;  (2)  the 
existence  of  slums;  (3)  the  settling  of  immi- 
grants in  colonies? 

2.  Is  your  knowledge  of  the  lives  of  the  poor 
sufficient  to  move  you  to  work  for  their  re- 
demption? Are  any  of  those  persons,  about 
whom  we  have  studied,  your  neighbors? 

3.  Is  the  prevailing  tone  of  New  York  and 
other  cities  American  or  Foreign?  Give  illus- 
trations. 

4.  What  is  the  prevailing  tone  in  city  govern- 
ment? Is  there  any  connection  between  the 
answers  of  these  last  two  questions? 

II.  Tenement-House  Evils. 

5.  Where  do  most  of  the  foreigners  settle  first  in 
the  United  States?  Of  what  races  is  the  mass 
chiefly  composed? 

6.  Describe  the  conditions  under  which  they  live. 
Do  they  find  them  so  or  make  them  so? 

7.  What  remedies  can  be  applied  to  tenement- 
house  conditions?  What  do  the  workers 
among  them  think  of  the  needs  and  prospects? 

8.  What  can  be  done  toward  improvement  by  the 
family?  the  school?  the  city  government? 

III.  Prevalent  Abuses. 

g.  Do  the  slum  conditions  tend  to  contaminate 
new  arrivals?    Do  they  actually  deteriorate? 


The  Foreign  Peril  of  the  City  229 


10.  What  is  the  worst  industrial  feature  of  the 
tenement-house  districts?  Describe  its  work- 
ings.  Tell  of  some  typical  sweat-shop  workers. 

11.  What  political  evils  flourish  in  the  congested 
districts? 

12.  What  moral  and  social  evils  flourish  in  the 
congested  districts? 

IV.    Effects  upon  the  Poor  and  the  Children. 

13.  What  relation  does  immigration  hold  to 
pauperism  and  poverty?  To  conditions  of 
health  ? 

14.  Name  some  of  the  principal  authorities  for  the 
preceding  answers?  How  would  you  answer 
those  who  disputed  their  statements? 

15.  Can  you  give  any  facts  as  to  child  labor?  What 
do  you  think  of  the  policy  of  employing  chil- 
dren? 

16.  *Does  this  chapter  convince  you  that  Christians 

have  a  duty  in  these  matters,  and  if  so,  what 
is  it? 

References  for  Advanced  Study. — Chapter  VI 
I.    New  York  Slums  and  Foreign  Quarters. 

Study  especially  the  Ghetto,  Little  Italy,  Little 
Hungary,  et  al.  and  find  out  whether  similar 
conditions  exist  in  cities  of  your  section. 

For  New  York,  consult 
University  Settlement  Studies,  Vol.  i,  Nos.  3  and  4. 
Riis:  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  X,  XIL 

For  Chicago,  consult 
Hull  House  Papers. 

For  Boston,  consult 
Wood:  Americans  in  Process,  III,  IV. 


230  Aliens  or  Americans? 


II.    Measures  for  Relief  of  Slum  Population. 
Riis:  The  Battle  With  the  Slum.  V-XV. 
Riis:  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  VI,  VII,  XXIV. 

III.  Connection  between  a  Dense  Foreign  Population 
and  Corruption  in  Politics. 

Wood :  Americans  in  Process,  VI. 

IV.  Checks    Put    upon    Industrial    Oppression  and 
Poverty. 

Riis:  The  Peril  and  the  Preservation  of  the  Home. 
V.    Problems  of  Poverty  and  Childhood  as  Affected 
by  Immigration. 
Hunter:  Poverty,  I,  V,  VI. 

Riis:  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  XV,  XVII,  XXI. 


"To  make  us  love  our  country,  our 
country  ought  to  be  lovely,"  said  Burke. 
If  there  is  to  be  patriotism,  it  must  be 
a  matter  of  pride  to  say,  "Americanus 
sum" — /  am  an  American. — Professor 
Mayo-Smith. 


VII 

IMMIGRATION  AND  THE  NATIONAL 
CHARACTER 


231 


If  that  man  who  careth  not  for  his  own  household  is 
worse  than  an  infidel,  the  nation  which  permits  its  insti- 
tutions to  be  endangered  by  any  cause  that  can  fairly  be 
removed,  is  guilty,  not  less  in  Christian  than  in  natural 
law.  Charity  begins  at  home;  and  while  the  people  of 
the  United  States  have  gladly  offered  an  asylum  to 
millions  upon  millions  of  the  distressed  and  unfortunate 
of  other  lands  and  climes,  they  have  no  right  to  carrj- 
their  hospitality  one  step  beyond  the  line  where  Ameri- 
can institutions,  the  American  rate  of  wages,  the  Ameri- 
can standard  of  living  are  brought  into  serious  peril. 
Our  highest  duty  to  charity  and  to  humanity  is  to  make 
this  great  experiment  here,  of  free  laws  and  educated 
labor,  the  most  triumphant  success  that  can  possibly 
be  attained.  In  this  way  we  shall  do  far  more  for 
Europe  than  by  allowing  its  slums  and  its  vast  stagnant 
reservoirs  of  degraded  peasantry  to  be  drained  off  upon 
our  soil. — General  Francis  A.  Walker. 

If  the  hope  which  this  country  holds  out  to  the  human 
race  of  permanent  and  stable  government  is  to  be 
impaired  by  the  enormous  and  unregulated  inroad  of 
poverty  and  ignorance,  which  changed  conditions  of 
transportation  have  brought  upon  us,  then  for  the  sake 
of  Europe,  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  Ame  rica,  the  com- 
ing of  these  people  should  be  checked  and  regulated 
until  we  can  handle  the  problems  that  are  already  facing 
us. — Phillips  Brooks. 

There  are  certain  fundamentals  in  every  system,  to 
destroy  which  destroys  the  system  itself.  Our  institu- 
tions have  grown  up  with  us  and  are  adapted  to  our 
national  character  and  needs.  To  change  them  at  the 
demand  of  agitators  knowing  nothing  of  that  character 
and  those  needs  would  be  absurd  and  destructive.— 
Professor  Mayo-Smith. 

ISfl 


VII 


IMMIGRATION  AND  THE  NATIONAL 
CHARACTER 

/.    Two  Points  of  View 

IMMIGRATION  is  a  radically  different  prob-  ^^'^^p'^", 

lem  from  that  of  slavery,  but  not  less  vital  to 
the  Republic.  It  is  a  marvelous  opportunity  for  a 
Christian  nation,  awake ;  but  an  unarmed  in- 
vasion signifying  destruction  to  the  ideals  and 
institutions  of  a  free  and  nominally  Christian 
nation,  asleep.  "The  wise  man's  eyes  are  in  his 
head,"  says  Solomon,  "but  the  fool  walketh  in 
darkness."  In  other  words,  the  difference 
between  the  wise  and  otherwise  is  one  of  sight. 
While  Americans  are  walking  in  the  darkness 
of  indifferentism  and  of  an  optimism  born  not  of 
faith  but  ignorance,  immigration  is  steadily 
changing  the  character  of  our  civilization.  We 
are  face  to  face  with  the  larger  race  problem — 
that  of  assimilating  sixty  nationalities  and  races. 
The  problem  will  never  be  solved  by  minimizing 
or  deriding  or  misunderstanding  it. 

All  through  this  study  we  have  sought  to 
remember  that  there  are  two  sides  to  every  ques- 

233 


234  Aliens  or  Americans? 


The  Two  iion,  and  two  to  every  phase  of  this  great  immi- 
gration  question.  Especially  is  this  true  when  we 
come  to  estimating  effects  upon  character,  for 
here  we  are  in  the  domain  of  inference  and  of 
reasoning  from  necessarily  limited  knowledge. 
Here,  too,  temperament  and  bias  play  their  part. 
One  person  learns  that  of  every  five  persons  you 
meet  in  New  York  four  are  of  foreign  birth  or 
parentage,  notes  the  change  in  personality,  cus- 
toms, and  manners,  and  wonders  how  long  our 
free  institutions  can  stand  this  test  of  unrestricted 
immigration.  Another  answers  that  the  foreign- 
ers are  not  so  bad  as  they  are  often  painted,  and 
that  the  immorality  in  the  most  foreign  parts 
of  New  York  is  less  than  in  other  parts. 
Different  A  third  says  it  is  not  fair  to  count  the 
Opinions  q£  foreign-born  parents  as  foreign ; 

that  they  are  in  fact  much  stronger  Americans 
in  general  than  the  native  children  of  native  par- 
entage ;  and  instances  the  flag-drills  in  the 
schools,  in  which  the  foreign  children  take  the 
keenest  delight,  as  they  do  in  the  study  of  Ameri- 
can history.  But  a  fourth  says,  with  Professor 
Boyesen,  that  it  takes  generations  of  intelligent, 
self-restrained,  and  self-respecting  persons  to 
make  a  man  fit  to  govern  himself,  and  that  if  the 
ordinary  tests  of  intelligence  and  morality 
amount  to  anything,  it  certainly  would' take  three 
or  four  generations  to  educate  these  newcomers 
up  to  the  level  of  American  citizenship. 


Immigration  and  National  Character  235 


One  observer  of  present  conditions  says 
there  is  a  lowered  moral  and  political  tone  by 
reason  of  immigration;  and  another  agrees  with 
a  leader  in  settlement  work  who  recently  said  to 
the  writer  that  he  sees  no  reason  to  restrict  immi- 
gration, that  wages  will  take  care  of  themselves 
and  the  foreigner  steadily  improve,  and  that  there 
is  in  the  younger  foreign  element  a  needed  dy- 
namic, a  consciousness  of  Americanism,  an  inter- 
est in  everything  American  in  refreshing  contrast 
to  the  laissez-faire  type  of  native  young  person 
now  so  common.  His  conclusion,  from  contact 
with  both  types,  is  that  the  intenseness  and  enthu- 
siasm of  the  foreign  element  will  make  the  native 
element  bestir  itself  or  go  under. 

So  opinions  run,  pro  and  con.  There  must 
be  a  mean  between  the  two  extremes — the  one, 
that  God  is  in  a  peculiar  sense  responsible  for  the 
future  of  the  United  States,  and  cannot  af¥ord 
to  let  our  experiment  of  self-government  fail, 
however  foolish  and  reckless  the  people  may  be ; 
and  the  other,  that  unless  Congress  speedily 
passes  restrictive  laws  the  destiny  of  our  country 
will  be  imperiled  beyond  remedy.  We  find  such 
a  mean  in  that  Americanization  which  includes 
evangelization  as  an  essential  part  of  the  assimi- 
lating process. 

As  to  the  ubiquity  of  the  foreigner  all  will 
agree.  "Any  foreigners  in  your  neighborhood?" 
asked  the  writer  of  a  friend  in  a  remote  country 


Conflicting 
Views 


Mean 

between 
Extremes 


Foreigners 
Everywhere 


236  Aliens  or  Americans? 


hamlet.  "O,  yes,"  was  the  reply,  "we  have  a 
colony  of  Italians."  Of  all  such  questions  asked 
during  months  past  not  one  has  been  answered  in 
the  negative.  Go  where  you  will,  from  Atlantic 
to  Pacific  Coast,  the  immigrant  is  there.  In 
nineteen  of  the  northern  states  of  our  Republic 
the  number  of  the  foreign-born  and  their  immedi- 
ate descendants  exceeds  the  number  of  the 
native-born.  In  the  largest  cities  the  number  is 
two  thirds,  and  even  three  quarters.  There  are 
more  Cohens  than  Smiths  in  the  New  York 
directory.  Two  thirds  of  the  laborers  in  our  fac- 
tories are  foreign-born  or  of  foreign  parentage. 
New  England  is  no  longer  Puritan  but  foreign. 
So  is  it  in  the  Middle  and  the  Central  West,  and 
not  only  in  city  and  town  but  hamlet  and  valley. 
The  farms  sanctified  by  many  a  Puritan  prayer  are 
occupied  to-day  by  French-Canadian  and  Italian 
aliens.  Foreigners  are  running  our  factories, 
w'orking  our  mines,  building  our  railways,  bor- 
ing our  tunnels,  doing  the  hard  manual  labor  in 
all  the  great  constructive  enterprises  of  the 
nation.  They  are  also  entering  all  the  avenues 
of  trade,  and  few  other  than  foreign  names  can  be 
seen  on  the  business  signs  in  our  cities  large  or 
small. 

Foreignism      -j^Tqi.  f^^^  ^j^g  foreigner,  of  one 

Preserved  -  '  ° 

race  or  another,  everv'where,  but  wherever  you 
find  him  in  any  numbers  you  note  that  the  most 
distinctive  feature  is  the  foreignism.   The  immi- 


Four  Nationalities 
Jewish  Girl  Polack  Girl 

Italian  Boy  Spanish  Boy 


Immigration  and  National  Character  237 

grant  readily  catches  the  spirit  of  independence 
and  makes  the  most  of  liberty.  He  is  insistent 
upon  his  rights,  but  not  always  so  careful  about 
the  rights  of  others.  He  is  imitative,  and  absorbs 
the  spirit  of  selfishness  as  quickly  as  do  the 
native-born.  He  is  often  unkempt,  uncul- 
tured, dirty,  and  disagreeable.  He  is  also  impres- 
sionable and  changeable,  responsive  to  kindness 
as  he  is  resentful  of  contempt.  He  follows  his 
own  customs  both  on  Sundays  and  week  days. 
He  knows  as  little  about  American  ideas  as 
Americans  know  about  him.  He  is  commonly 
apt  to  learn,  and  very  much  depends  upon  the 
kind  of  teaching  he  falls  under.  Much  of  it, 
unfortunately,  has  not  been  of  the  kind  to  make 
the  American  ideas  and  ways  seem  preferable  to 
his  own.  Made  to  feel  like  an  alien,  he  is  likely 
to  remain  at  heart  an  alien ;  whereas  the  very 
safety  and  welfare  and  Christian  civilization  of 
our  country  depend  in  no  small  degree  upon 
transforming  him  into  a  true  American.  For 
upon  this  change  hangs  the  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion, which  influence  is  to  be  strongest — ours 
upon  the  foreigner  or  the  foreigner's  upon  us. 

//.    American  Ideals 

Surely  this  is  a  question  to  engage  the  atten-  a  Question  tot 
tion  of  Christian  patriots — the  influence  of  this 
vast  mass  of  undigested  if  not  indigestible  immi- 
gration upon  the  national  character  and  life.  A 


238  Aliens  or  Americans? 


most  scholarly  and  valuable  treatment  of  this 
subject  is  found  in  the  discriminating  work  by 
Professor  Mayo-Smith,  one  of  the  very  best 
books  written  on  the  subject.  The  figiires  are 
out  of  date,  but  the  principles  so  clearly  enun- 
ciated are  permanent,  and  the  conclusions  sane 
and  sound.  This  is  the  way  he  opens  up  the 
subject  we  are  now  considering: 
The  Marks  of  "The  wholc  life  of  a  nation  is  not  covered  by 
sation''  its  politics  and  its  economics.    Civilization  does 

not  consist  merely  of  free  political  institutions 
and  material  prosperity.  The  morality  of  a  com- 
munity, its  observance  of  law  and  order,  its  free- 
dom from  vice,  its  intelligence,  its  rate  of  mor- 
tality and  morbidity,  its  thrift,  cleanliness,  and 
freedom  from  a  degrading  pauperism,  its  observ- 
ance of  family  ties  and  obligations,  its  humani- 
tarian disposition  and  charity,  and  finally  its 
social  ideals  and  habits  are  just  as  much  indices 
of  its  civilization  as  the  trial  by  jury  or  a  high 
rate  of  wages.  These  things  are,  in  fact,  the 
flower  and  fruit  of  civilization — in  them  consists 
the  successful  'pursuit  of  happiness'  which  our 
ancestors  coupled  with  life  and  liberty  as  the 
inalienable  rights  of  a  man  worthy  of  the  name. 

'Tn  order  that  we  may  take  a  pride  in  our 
nationality  and  be  willing  to  make  sacrifices  for 
our  country,  it  is  necessary  that  it  should  satisfy 
in  some  measure  our  ideal  of  what  a  nation  ought 
to  be.    What  now  are  the  characteristics  of 


Immigration  and  National  Character  239 


American  state  and  social  life  which  we  desire 
to  see  preserved?  Among  the  most  obvious  are 
the  following: 

"(i)  The  free  political  constitution  and  the  ability  American 
to  govern  ourselves  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  Ideals 
which  we  have  inherited  from  England  and  so  sur- 
prisingly developed  in  our  own  history; 

"(2)  The  social  morality  of  the  Puritan  settlers  of 
New  England,  which  the  spirit  of  equality  and  the 
absence  of  privileged  classes  have  enabled  us  to 
maintain ; 

"(3)  The  economic  well-being  of  the  mass  of  the 
community,  which  affords  our  working  classes  a  degree 
of  comfort  distinguishing  them  sharply  from  the 
artisans  and  peasants  of  Europe; 

"(4)  Certain  social  habits  which  are  distinctively 
American  or  are,  at  least,  present  in  greater  degree 
among  our  people  than  elsewhere  in  the  world.  Such 
are  love  of  law  and  order,  ready  acquiescence  in  the 
will  of  the  majority,  a  generally  humane  spirit,  display- 
ing itself  in  respect  for  women  and  care  for  children  and 
helpless  persons,  a  willingness  to  help  others,  a  sense 
of  humor,  a  good  nature  and  a  kindly  manner,  a 
national  patriotism,  and  confidence  in  the  future  of  the 
country. 

"All  these  are  desirable  traits;  and  as  we  look 
forward  to  the  future  of  our  commonwealth  we  * 
should  wish  to  see  them  preserved,  and  should 
deprecate  influences  tending  to  destroy  the  con- 
ditions under  which  they  exist.  Any  such 
phenomenon  as  immigration,  exerting  wide  and 
lasting  influence,  should  be  examined  with  great 


240  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Protestant 
Relieioa  Vital 


American  Life 
Chan^ng 


care  to  see  what  its  effect  on  these  things  will 
be."i 

We  should  add  to  this  thoughtful  statement  a 
clause  concerning  religion.  A  vital  thing  to  be 
maintained  and  extended  is  the  Protestant  faith 
which  formed  the  basis  of  our  colonial  and 
national  life.  No  part  of  the  subject  should  re- 
ceive more  careful  scrutiny  than  the  effect  of 
immigration  upon  Protestant  America.  What- 
ever would  make  this  country  less  distinctively 
Protestant  in  religion  tends  to  destroy  all  the 
other  social  and  civil  characteristics  which,  it  is 
well  said,  we  wish  to  preserve. 

When  immigration  began  in  the  early  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  American  people 
possessed  a  distinctive  life  and  character  of  their 
own,  differing  in  many  respects  from  that  of 
any  other  people.  The  easy  amalgamation  of  the 
races  that  formed  the  colonial  stock — English, 
Huguenot,  Scotch,  Dutch — had  produced  an 
American  stock  distinct  from  any  in  the  Old 
World.  The  nation  was  practically  homogeneous, 
and  its  social,  religious,  and  political  ideals  and 
aims  were  distinct.  That  great  changes  have 
taken  place  in  the  past  century  no  one  will  deny. 
The  material  expansion  and  development  have 
not  been  more  marked  than  the  changes  social 
and  religious. 

Just  what  part  immigration  has  played  in 


'Richmond  Mayo-Smith.  Emigration  and  Immigration,  s  flf. 


Immigration  and  National  Character  241 


producing  these  changes  it  is  of  course  difficult  influence  of 

.  ,  ,  •       1  <       1  Immigratioa 

to  say  With  exactness,  but  unquestionably  the 
part  has  been  very  great.  The  twenty-three  mil- 
lions of  aliens  admitted  into  the  United  States 
since  1820  brought  their  habits  and  customs  and 
standards  of  living  with  them  ;  brought  also  their 
religion  or  want  of  it ;  and  it  would  be  absurd  to 
imagine  that  all  of  these  millions  had  been  Ameri- 
canized, or,  in  other  words,  had  given  up  their 
old  ways  for  our  ways  of  thinking  and  living. 
On  the  contrary,  they  have  transported  all 
sorts  of  political  notions  from  monarchial  coun- 
tries to  our  soil.  "The  continental  ideas  of  the 
Sabbath,  the  nihilist's  ideas  of  government,  the 
communist's  ideas  of  property,  the  pagan's  ideas 
of  religion — all  these  mingle  in  our  air  with  the 
ideas  that  shaped  the  men  at  Plymouth  Rock  and 
Valley  Forge,"  that  adorned  hill,  dale  and  prairie 
with  Christian  church  and  Christian  school,  and 
made  possible  the  building  of  free  America. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  immigrants  have  mostly  The  Grad*  of 
represented  the  peasant  or  lower  classes  of  the  Aliens 
countries  whence  they  came.  This  is  noted,  not 
in  the  way  of  prejudice,  but  because  it  is  always 
true  that  mortality  is  greater,  and  crime,  illiter- 
acy, and  pauperism  are  more  prevalent  among 
the  lower  classes.  Of  course  it  is  also  true  that 
if  the  higher  classes  had  come  from  foreign  lands 
they  would  have  made  an  addition  to  the  social 
life  quite  different  from  that  which  did  come. 


242  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Bad  Effects  of 
New  Environ- 
ments 


The  average  character  of  the  immigration,  how- 
ever favorable,  required  raising  in  order  to  meet 
the  American  level.  In  the  new  environment  it 
was  to  be  expected  that  large  numbers  of  indi- 
viduals among  the  immigrants  would  rise  to 
prominence  and  influence,  and  this  has  been  the 
case.  The  country  owes  large  debt  to  the  immi- 
grants of  earlier  days.  Their  children  and 
descendants  are  loyal  Americans.  It  is  true,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  many  have  come  from  unfor- 
tunate conditions  in  the  Old  World  only  to  fall 
into  quite  as  unfortunate  ones  in  the  New ;  and 
they  and  their  descendants  have  swollen  the 
pauper  and  criminal  class.  The  statistics  prove 
that  a  large  proportion  of  our  criminals  and  con- 
victs are  of  foreign  birth.  It  is  still  more  signifi- 
cant to  note  that,  in  the  opinion  of  expert 
observers,  the  first  generation  of  foreign-bom 
parentage,  in  the  cities  at  least,  make  a  worse 
record  than  the  migrating  parents. 

If  this  be  so,  the  new  environment  is  producing 
deterioration  and  degeneracy  instead  of  improve- 
ment. An  Italian  of  education,  working  among 
his  people,  told  the  writer  that  the  Italian  boys 
and  girls  born  here,  or  coming  at  a  very  early 
age,  were  much  more  lawless  and  disorderly  and 
difficult  to  deal  with  than  their  fathers  and 
mothers.  They  had  imbibed  all  the  worst 
features  of  our  life,  its  independence,  its  defiance 
of  parental  authority,  its  selfishness,  rudeness, 


Immigration  and  National  Character  243 

and  vices,  while  they  lacked  the  reverence, 
courtesy,  and  spirit  of  obedience  native  to  the 
Italian-born.  This  is  substantiated  by  many  wit- 
nesses who  have  labored  among  the  foreign  ele- 
ment. The  Americanization  these  children  are 
getting  is  largely  of  the  worst  type — the  type  that 
we  should  like  to  see  emigrate  to  European  coun- 
tries. And  it  is  confined  to  no  one  race,  but  com- 
mon to  all.  Professor  Boyesen,  for  instance,  a 
Norwegian-American,  who  blamed  the  ideas 
gained  in  the  public  schools  for  some  of  the 
results  seen  in  the  young  hoodlums  and  roughs 
of  foreign  parentage,  said  that  worthy  German 
and  Scandinavian  fathers  complained  bitterly 
that  they  could  not  govern  their  children  in  this 
country.  Their  sons  took  to  the  streets,  and  if 
disciplined  left  home  entirely ;  and  they  attributed 
this  to  the  spirit  of  irresponsible  independence 
in  the  air.  This  is  perhaps  one  of  the  inevitable 
penalties  of  individual  liberty. 

///.  Various  Effects  of  Immigration 
The  introduction  through  immigration  of  a  Maying  Life 
lower  standard  of  living  has  been  shown  in  pre- 
ceding  chapters.  The  point  to  be  appreciated  is 
that  in  this  matter  we  are  not  dealing  with  the 
immigration  of  individual  paupers  and  cheap 
workingmen,  but  with  the  influx  of  whole  classes 
that  threaten  to  degrade  our  material  civilization. 
There  are  in  America  entire  communities  which 


244 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


live  on  a  different  plane,  and  form  colonies  as 
foreign  to  American  ideas  and  life  as  anything  in 
Europe  can  show.  They  have  organized  their 
own  social  life  and  fixed  their  own  standards, 
instead  of  rising  to  ours.  The  results  are  plain 
all  over  the  country.  Immigration  has  cheapened 
more  than  wages  in  certain  lines,  it  has  cheapened 
life,  until  the  coal  barons  could  say,  "It  is  cheaper 
to  store  men  than  coal."  But  men  may  be  too 
cheap. 

Good  Qualities      Some   of  the  best  qualities   in   the  irami- 

Bad  if  Abused  < .  <  ,  .  rr^,    .  r  p 

grants  are  liable  to  abuse.  Thrift,  for  mstance, 
is  commendable,  but  not  when  it  is  exercised  at 
the  expense  of  decent  living.  Economy  is  an 
admirable  trait,  but  not  when  practiced  at  the  ex- 
pense of  manhood  and  decent  conditions.  A  dis- 
tinct deterioration  of  the  masses  displaced  by  the 
cheaper  labor  has  marked  the  advent  of  the  new 
immigration.  While  some  of  the  workingmen 
thrown  out  of  employment  by  immigration  rise 
with  the  increase  in  the  number  of  superior  posi- 
tions, the  great  mass  are  obliged  to  accept  the 
lower  standard  or  are  forced  out  of  the  industry 
into  misery,  pauperism,  and  crime.  The  greater 
tendency  of  immigrants,  by  reason  of  their  pov- 
erty, to  permit  or  encourage  the  employment  of 
their  wives  or  children,  still  further  increases  the 
intensity  of  the  competition  for  employment.  In 
view  of  all  the  facts,  a  recent  writer  argues  that 
the  limitation  or  restriction  which  would  reduce 


Immigration  and  NaticKial  Character  245 


a  Result  of  too 
Large  Immi. 
gration 


False 
Reasoning 


the  volume  and  improve  the  economic  quality  of 
immigration  would  greatly  improve  labor  condi- 
tions in  this  country. 

Under  the  present  free  inflow,  says  this  writer,  Deterioration 
"the  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the  work- 
ing classes  of  this  country  is  being  perma- 
nently depressed,  and  the  difference  between  the 
industrial  condition  of  the  unskilled  workers  in 
our  country  and  of  other  countries  is  being  stead- 
ily lessened  to  our  permanent  and  great  detri- 
ment."i 

As  to  the  economic  effects  of  unrestricted 
immigration,  the  stock  argument  that  it  costs  a 
foreign  country  a  thousand  dollars  to  raise  a 
man,  and  that,  therefore,  every  immigrant  is  that 
much  clear  money  gain  to  this  country,  simply 
begs  the  question  of  the  usefulness  of  the  immi- 
grant and  the  country's  need  of  him.  Many  im- 
migrants are  not  worth  what  it  cost  to  raise  them, 
to  their  native  land  or  any  other;  and  at  any 
rate,  a  man  is  only  of  value  where  he  can  fit  into 
the  community  life  and  do  something  it  needs  to 
have  done.  Another  naive  claim  is  that  every 
mouth  that  comes  into  the  country  brings  with  it 
two  hands,  the  assumption  being  that  there  is 
necessarily  work  for  the  two  hands.  If  not,  then 
there  is  an  extra  mouth  to  be  fed  at  somebody 
else's  expense.  The  real  question  is  one  of 
demand  and  quality. 


'Walter  E  Heyl,  in  University  Settlement  Studies. 


246  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Education""      ^^^^  immigration  had,  and  what 

is  it  Hkely  to  have,  upon  our  national  educational 
policy?  The  parochial  school  is  opposed  to  the 
public  school ;  the  parochial  school  is  Roman,  the 
public  school  American.  The  parochial  schools 
could  not  secure  scholars  but  for  immigration. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  persistently  trying 
to  get  appropriations  of  public  money  for  paro- 
chial schools,  although  well  aware  that  this  is 
directly  contrary  to  the  fundamental  American 
principle  of  absolute  separation  of  Church  and 
State ;  and  is  relying  upon  the  foreign  vote  to 
accomplish  this  un-American  purpose.  Here  is 
an  illustration  of  the  conditions  made  possible 
through  unchecked  immigration  and  the  wielding 
of  this  immigration  by  priestly  influence : 
Baneful         In  Illinois  the  foreign  element  outnumbers  the 

Results  in         ^.       .  ,.  -r  , 

Illinois  native  m  voting  power.  In  consequence  compul- 
sory education  in  the  public  schools  of  that  state 
was  voted  down  by  a  legislature  pledged  to  obey 
the  dictum  of  the  foreign  element.  Where  the 
priests  wield  the  foreign  element  in  favor  of  the 
parochial  schools,  it  is  not  possible  to  pass  a  bill 
for  compulsory  education  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. 

Parochial  The  Striking  fact  is  given  by  Dr.  Wame^  that 

Pennsylvania  parochial  schools  for  the  Slav  children  in  Penn- 
sylvania, English  is  not  taught,  and  the  children 
are  growing  ug  as  thoroughly  foreign  and  under 

'F.  J.  Warne,  The  Slav  Invasion,  103. 


Immigration  and  National  Character  247 

priestly  control  as  though  they  were  in  Bohemia 
or  Galicia. 

A  student  of  this  subject^  says  that  all  the  facts 
indicate  that  the  time  will  come  when,  if  com- 
pulsory education  in  English  is  not  maintained 
by  the  states,  this  important  matter  will  have  to 
be  made  one  of  national  legislation.  "The  supine 
bowing  of  the  native  element  in  our  political  par- 
ties to  this  foreign,  domineering,  un-American 
and  denationalizing  opposition  to  the  state  control 
of  the  education  of  the  child  for  citizenship  is  in 
itself  a  menace.  When  we  hear  of  public  schools 
in  America  taught  in  German  and  Polish,  instead 
of  the  language  of  Emerson  and  Longfellow,  Lin- 
coln and  Grant,  one  feels  like  taking,  not 
Diogenes'  lantern,  but  an  Edison  searchlight,  and 
going  about  our  streets  to  see  if  there  be  in  all 
our  cities  a  patriot."  More  evil  in  results  than 
this,  and  most  insidious  of  all  the  attempts  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  to  undermine  Ameri- 
can principles,  is  the  system  of  so-called  com- 
promise by  which  some  of  the  public  schools  are 
taught  by  nuns,  sisters,  and  priests,  who  wear 
their  Church  garb,  and  use  the  school  buildings 
during  certain  hours  for  sectarian  instruction. 
The  mere  statement  of  the  facts  ought  to  be 
sufficient  to  bring  about  drastic  remedies,  but  the 
easy-going  Protestants  apparently  do  not  realize 
what  is  being  done. 

*Rena  M.  Atchison,  Un-American  Immigration,  82. 


248  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Schools  the 
Sure  Way  to 
Americanism 


ERcctc  upon 

Political 

Conditions 


American  patriotism  must  steadily  and  reso- 
lutely resist  every  Roman  Catholic  attack,  open 
or  covert,  upon  our  public  schools,  every  attempt 
to  divert  public  moneys  to  sectarian  purposes. 
This  is  vital  to  the  preservation  of  our  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  For  the  immigrant  children  the 
public  schools  ar^  the  sluiceways  into  American- 
ism. When  the  stream  of  alien  childhood  flows 
through  them,  it  will  issue  into  the  reservoirs  of 
national  life  with  the  Old  World  taints  filtered 
out,  and  the  qualities  retained  that  make  for 
loyalty  and  good  citizenship.  We  shall  have  to 
look  to  our  school  boards,  elevate  them  above 
party  politics  and  the  reach  of  graft,  and  elect 
upon  them  men  and  women  instinct  with  the 
spirit  of  true  Americanism,  or  see  this  mightiest 
agency  of  modern  civilization  diverted  from  its 
high  mission  to  produce  for  the  Republic  an  en- 
lightened and  noble  manhood  and  womanhood. 

What  is  the  eflFect  of  the  addition  of  so  many 
thousands  of  men  of  voting  age  upon  our  political 
conditions  ?  Undoubtedly  demoralizing  and  dan- 
gerous. Professor  Mayo-Smith  says :  "We  are 
thus  conferring  the  privilege  of  citizenship,  in- 
cluding the  right  to  vote,  without  any  test  of  the 
man's  fitness  for  it.  The  German  vote  in 
many  localities  controls  the  action  of  political 
leaders  on  the  liquor  question,  oftentimes  in 
opposition  to  the  sentiment  of  the  native  com- 
munity.   The  bad  influence  of  a  purely  ignorant 


I 


Immigration  and  National  Character  249 


vote  is  seen  in  the  degradation  of  our  municipal 
administrations  in  America."^  The  foreign-born 
congregate  in  the  large  cities,  especially  the 
mass  of  unskilled  laborers.  There  they  easily 
come  under  control  of  leaders  of  their  own  race, 
who  use  them  to  further  selfish  ends.  Fraudulent 
naturalization  is  another  evil  result.  There  is  no 
more  dangerous  element  in  the  Republic  than  a 
foreign  vote,  wielded  by  unscrupulous  partisans 
and  grafters.  The  immigrant  is  not  so  much  to 
blame  as  are  those  who  corrupt  him,  but  if  he 
were  not  here  they  would  have  no  opportunity. 
In  order  to  wield  a  bludgeon  a  bully  must  have 
the  bludgeon. 

There  is  an  unquestioned  and  increasing  evil  a  voter 
and  peril  in  a  German  vote,  an  Irish  vote,  a  fo*'Re*^d'*hit'''* 
Scandinavian  vote,  an  Italian  vote,  and  a  Hebrew  Ballot 
vote.    Out  in  South  Dakota  a  Russian  vote  also 
has  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  in  New  England  a 
French-Canadian  vote.   All  this  is  undemocratic 
and  unwholesome  in  the  highest  degree.  Our 
government  is  based  upon  the  intelligent  and 
responsible  use  of  the  ballot.   How  can  such  use 
be  possible  in  the  case  of  the  naturalized  alien 
who  cannot  read  or  write  our  language  or  any 
other?   No  one  can  declare  it  unreasonable  that 
a  reading  test  as  a  qualification  for  voting  should 
be  required  of  all.    On  the  brighter  side  of  the 
political  phase,  it  is  asserted  that  it  was  the  for- 

•Richmond  Mayo-Smith,  Emigration  and  Immigration  84  ff. 


250  Aliens  or  Americans? 


eign  element  of  the  East  Side  in  New  York  that 
made  possible  the  election  of  a  reform  candidate 
in  a  recent  election,  and  that  this  element  can  be 
relied  upon  for  reform  and  independent  voting 
quite  as  much  as  the  American  society  element, 
which  is  frequently  too  indifferent  to  vote  at  all. 
There  is  too  much  truth  in  this.  At  the  same 
time,  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  discussions  at 
the  People's  Forum  in  Cooper  Institute,  New 
York,  or  similar  meeting  places  of  the  foreign 
element  in  other  large  cities,  knows  how  essen- 
tially un-American  are  the  point  of  view  and  the 
theories  most  advocated. 

IV.    The  Religions  Problem 

Effects  upon  What  is  the  effect  of  immigration  upon  the 
Religious       religious  life  of  the  country?   This  is  an  exceed- 

Conditions  ° 

ingly  difficult  matter  upon  which  to  generalize- 
There  is  no  doubt  that  great  changes  have  taken 
place  in  the  religious  views  and  practices  of  the 
people,  but  how  far  these  can  be  attributed  to 
foreign  influence  is  something  upon  which  agree- 
ment will  be  rare  and  judgment  difficult.  It  will 
be  instructive,  first  of  all,  to  study  this  table, 
which  gives  the  results  of  questions  asked  the 
immigrants  in  1900  concerning  their  religious 
connections.  This  was  the  last  inquiry  of  the 
kind  officially  made,  and  will  indicate  what  reli- 
gious elements  in  immigration  must  be  taken  into 
consideration : 


Immigration  and  National  Character  251 


RELIGIOUS  STATISTICS  OF  THE  IMMIGRATION  FOR  1900 


2 

3 

S 

R 

5 

a 

,  g 

71 

Countries 

Total 

Protest 

c-^ 

11 

Greek 
Catlioli 

« 

1 

-H  ^ 

■s  8 

■  S  =3 

Austria-Hungurv .... 

64,835 

5,009 

39,694 

7,699 

11,082 

1.351 

Belgium. 

1,728 

94 

967 

2 

4 

661 

Denmark  ... 

3.253 

2,629 

44 

2 

578 

France 

4  902 

165 

1,736 

"3 

12 

2,934 

German  Kmpirc  . .  . 

25.904 

10,258 

6,758 

18 

401 

8,463 

Greece 

2.450 

14 

14 

2,35 

72 

Italy   

79.C64 

50 

78,306 

26 

"i 

1,281 

Netherlsndj. 

1,994 

839 

190 

8 

957 

7  113 

6.674 

2 

437 

Portugal 

2,269 

2 

2,056 

211 

Roumania           .  . 

1,655 

160 

60 

"31 

1,350 

54 

Russian  Empire  and 

Finland  

62.537 

13,295 

22,462 

1,470 

24,351 

1 

958 

Servia,  Bulgaria  . 

59 

4 

47 

1 

Spain  

1,428 

"is 

704 

709 

Sweden  

13.541 

12.708 

9 

824 

Switzerland  

2,2$i 

710 

608 

"7 

"  6 

963 

Turkey  in  Europe  

137 

5 

33 

27 

i3 

54 

United  Kingdom  

65,390 

12,611 

31,216 

4 

197 

1 

21,361 

8 

3 

Total  Europe  

341,161 

65',238 

184.835 

11,695 

37^442 

17 

41.934 

Total  Asia  

9,726 

452 

1,390 

2,833 

48 

3,373 

77 

1,553 

109 

13 

9 

5 

16 

66 

^ill  other  countries. . . 

20.440 

1.274 

2,178 

"ii 

28 

228 

6,721 

•Grand  total  

361,436 

66,977 

188.412 

14.539 

37,523 

3,001 

110 

50,274 

Percentage   in  each 

100 

18.54 

52.14 

4.03 

10.39 

.99 

13.91 

'Represents  the  recapitulation  of  totals  of  Europe,  Asia,  Alnca  and  cll 
other  countries. 

In  analyzing  these  figures,  it  will  be  noted  Ei'ghty 
that  the  Roman  Catholics  had  fifty-two  per  cent. 

.  Non-Pr 

in  a  year  when  the  total  immigration  of  361,436  tant 
(not  much  over  one  third  that  of  the  present 
time)  was  about  the  same  in  the  proportion  of 
aliens  from  southeastern  Europe  as  now.  The 
Jews  would  make  a  larger  showing  at  present,  as 
the  immigrants  from  Russia  are  almost  wholly 
Jews.  The  Protestant  strength  certainly  would 
not  be  any  greater  proportionately.    The  large 


252 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


number  put  down  as  miscellaneous  is  significant. 
What  a  task  is  laid  upon  American  Protestantism 
— nothing  less  than  the  evangelization  of  nearly 
eighty-two  per  cent,  of  the  vast  immigration.  It 
is  easy  to  say  that  the  fifty-two  per  cent,  is  nomi- 
nally Christian,  but  in  fact  that  nominal  Chris- 
tianity is  in  many  respects  as  much  out  of 
sympathy  with  American  religious  ideals,  with 
democracy  and  the  pure  gospel,  as  is  heathenism ; 
and  it  is  in  many  cases  as  difficult  to  reach,  and 
as  great  an  obstacle  to  the  assimilation  of  the 
aliens. 

Sunday  Looking  at  various  results  of  this  incoming 

Observance  ^lost,  in  regard  to  reverence  for  Sunday  and 
observance  of  it,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  mil- 
lions of  Germans,  with  their  continental  Sun- 
day, were  leaders  in  breaking  in  upon  our  Sun- 
day customs.  While  they  have  as  a  people 
observed  the  laws — although  seeking  to  have  the 
laws  changed  so  as  to  permit  here  the  home 
customs  of  open  concert  halls  and  beer  gardens 
on  Sunday  afternoon  and  evening — their  influ- 
ence has  been  strongly  felt  in  favor  of  loose 
Sunday  observance,  and  this  has  been  sufficient 
to  stimulate  the  natural  tendency  of  the  Ameri- 
can element  to  make  the  day  one  of  amusement 
and  recreation,  regardless  of  laws.  The  result 
is  that  now  we  have  a  lawless  American  Sunday 
quite  different  from  and  more  objectionable  than 
the  continental  Sunday. 


Immigration  and  National  Character  253 

In  the  larger  cities  throughout  the  country  the  Disregard  of 
encroachments  of  the  money-makers  have  been 
steady.  Performances  of  all  kinds  are  permitted, 
theaters  run  either  openly  or  with  thinly  veiled 
programs,  saloons  are  open  to  those  who  know 
where  the  proper  entrances  are,  and  many  forms 
of  business  and  labor  are  carried  on  seven  days 
in  the  week.  The  Jews  claimed  that  it  was  a 
hardship  to  have  to  close  on  Sunday,  when  their 
religious  observances  came  on  Saturday,  with 
result  that  a  good  many  manage  to  keep  shops 
and  factories  open  all  the  year  around.  Pleas 
of  necessity  have  been  put  forward  where  con- 
tractors desired  to  push  jobs  and  profits.  Sun- 
day excursions  are  universal,  and  in  order  to 
gain  their  Sunday  pleasure-outings  several  mil- 
lions of  people  of  all  races  keep  several  other 
millions  hard  at  work  on  the  day  of  rest.  All 
places  are  crowded  on  Sunday  except  the 
churches.  Go  among  the  foreign  elements  in  the 
city  and  you  would  never  know  it  was  Sunday. 
Holiday  has  supplanted  holy-day.  Observe  the 
trolley-cars  or  subway  or  elevated  trains  on  Sun- 
day and  you  will  see  nine  foreigners  out  of  every 
ten  persons.  Go  into  the  suburbs  and  you  will 
find  springing  up  in  out-of-the-way  places,  where 
land  can  be  secured  cheap,  little  recreation  parks, 
with  games  and  dancing  platforms ;  and  here 
there  will  be  throngs  of  Italians  and  other  for- 
eigners all  day. 


254 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Loss  of  the 

American 

Sunday 


General 
Deterioration 


Let  US  be  just  in  this  matter.  The  loss  of 
the  American  Sunday  is  undoubtedly  due  in 
great  measure  to  immigration ;  due  in  part  to  the 
weakness  and  dereliction  of  American  professing 
Christians  who  have  surrendered  to  the  foreign 
elements  and  fallen  in  with  their  ideas  instead  of 
maintaining  public  worship  and  insisting  upon 
respect  for  law  at  least.  Let  the  blame  fall  where 
it  belongs,  and  let  the  Church  members  recreant 
to  duty  take  their  share.  When  the  sea  threat- 
ened Holland  her  resolute  people  built  the  dykes 
and  maintained  them ;  American  Christians  have 
failed  to  stop  the  leaks  in  the  church  dykes,  and 
we  have  had  a  Sunday  submergence  in  conse- 
quence. The  effect  of  it  upon  our  national  de- 
velopment is  already  evident  and  is  most  disas- 
trous to  our  highest  interests.  Sabbath-breaking 
and  progress-making  never  go  together.  Sunday 
work  and  pleasure  combined  fonn  the  peril  alike 
of  the  American  workingman  and  of  Christian 
civilization. 

Along  with  this  inflow  of  alien  ideas  in  reli- 
gion goes  a  lowered  morality  and  a  lower  tone 
generally.  Not  that  the  sins  of  those  in  high 
places  are  to  be  charged  upon  the  poor  immi- 
grant, for  he  rarely  if  ever  belongs  to  that  class. 
The  statement  may  be  true  that  the  great  rascals 
are  of  native  stock.  But  that  only  increases  the 
peril.  The  masses  that  come  to  us  from  southern 
Europe  certainly  will  not  raise  the  moral  or  com- 


Immigration  and  National  Character  255 


The  Only 


mercial,  any  more  than  they  will  the  political  or 
intellectual,  level.  If  we  do  not  raise  them  they 
will  tend  to  lower  us ;  and  much  of  what  they 
see  and  hear  can  have  nothing  less  than  a  demoral- 
izing effect. 

Where  shall  we  find  the  zealous  and  con- 
sistent Christians  who  by  sympathetic  contact  Libert"'*  °^ 
will  represent  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity,  and 
make  the  elevation  of  the  aliens  possible?  The 
supreme  truth  to  be  realized  is  that  nothing  but 
Christianity,  as  incarnated  in  American  Protest- 
antism, can  preserve  America's  free  institutions. 

Ex-President  Seelye,  of  Amherst,  said  that  so-  spread  of 
cialism  is  the  question  of  the  time,  and  this  is 
more  apparent  with  every  passing  year.  Social- 
ism has  its  source  in  the  foreign  element.  It  is 
.not  native  to  America.  Its  swelling  hosts  are 
composed  almost  entirely  of  immigrants  of  recent 
coming.  It  is  found  not  only  in  the  great  cities 
\but  is  spreading  through  the  farming  sections.  • 
Now,  there  is  a  truth  in  socialism  that  must  be 
intelligently  dealt  with;  and  there  is  a  Christian 
socialism  that  should  become  dominant.  And 
this  is  the  only  force  that  can  check  and  counter- 
act the  foreign  socialism  that  would  sweep  away 
foundations  instead  of  ameliorating  conditions 
and  remedying  evils. 

In  the  same  way,  Protestant  Christianity  is  the  Migration  a 
only  agency  that  can  save  us  from  the  moral 
degeneracy  involved  in  migration,  even  if  the 


256  Aliens  or  Americans? 


immigrants  were  of  our  moral  grade  before 
coming.  As  Dr.  Strong  says,  the  very  act  of 
migration  is  demoralizing.  All  the  strength  that 
comes  from  associations,  surroundings,  relations, 
the  emigrant  leaves  behind  him,  and  becomes 
isolated  in  a  strange  land.  Is  it  strange,  then, 
that  those  who  come  from  other  lands,  whose  old 
associations  are  all  broken  and  whose  reputations 
are  left  behind,  should  sink  to  a  lower  moral 
level?  Across  the  sea  they  suffered  restraints 
which  are  here  removed.  Better  wages  afford 
larger  means  of  self-indulgence ;  often  the  back 
is  not  strong  enough  to  bear  prosperity,  and  lib- 
erty too  often  lapses  into  license.^ 
Why  Foreign  This  result  of  migration  is  at  once  an  evil  and 
Pej^etuaud  Opportunity.    Breaking  away  from  the  old 

associations  leaves  room  and  necessity  for  new 
ones.  Upon  the  character  of  these  the  future  of 
the  immigrant  will  largely  depend.  Here  is  the 
Christian  opportunity.  See  to  it  that  the  new  asso- 
ciations make  for  righteousness  and  patriotism.  If 
the  immigrant  is  evangelized,  assimilation  is 
easy  and  sure.  It  is  recognition  of  this  fact  that 
leads  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  to  keep  for- 
eign colonies  in  America  as  isolated  and  per- 
manent as  possible.  The  ecclesiastics  realize  that 
children  must  be  held  in  the  parochial  schools, 
so  as  to  avoid  the  Americanization  that  comes 
through  the  public  schools,  with  the  probable 

'Josiah  Strong,  Our  Country,  56. 


I 


Immigration  and  National  Character  257 


loss  of  loyalty  to  the  Church.  The  parents  equally 
must  be  kept  away  from  the  influences  that  would 
broaden  and  enlighten  them.  Dr.  Strong  tells 
of  large  colonies  in  the  West,  settled  by  foreign- 
ers of  one  nationality  and  religion ;  "thus  build- 
ing up  states  within  a  state,  having  different  lan- 
guages, different  antecedents,  different  religions, 
different  ideas  and  habits,  preparing  mutual  jeal- 
ousies, and  perpetuating  race  antipathies.  In 
New  England  conventions  are  held  to  which  only 
French-Canadian  Roman  Catholics  are  admitted. 
At  such  a  convention  in  Nashua,  New  Hampshire, 
attended  by  eighty  priests,  the  following  mottoes 
were  displayed :  'Our  tongue,  our  nationality, 
our  religion,'  'Before  everything  else,  let  us  re- 
main French !'  "  And  it  is  well  said :  "If  our 
noble  domain  were  tenfold  larger  than  it  is,  it 
would  still  be  too  small  to  embrace  with  safety  to 
our  national  future,  little  Germanics  here,  little 
Scandinavias  there,  and  little  Irelands  yonder." 
To-day  there  are  also  little  Italies  and  little  Hun- 
garies,  and  a  long  list  of  other  races. 

V.    The  Hopeful  Side 

Turning  to  the  pleasanter  and  brighter  side  of 
this  great  question,  we  give  the  encouraging  view  *  Brighter 
of  one  who  has  spent  years  among  the  immigrant 
population,  studying  their  environment,  condi- 
tions, and  character,  with  view  to  improving  their 
chances.    She  says: 


258  Aliens  or  Americans? 


"The  writer  will  risk  just  one  generalization 
which,  it  is  hoped,  the  ultimate  facts  will  bear 
out,  that  in  the  case  of  the  new  immigration  we 
shall  see  a  repetition  of  the  story  of  the  old  immi- 
grant we  are  so  familiar  with.  First  comes  the 
ignorant  and  poor  but  industrious  peasant,  the 
young  man,  alone,  without  wife  or  family.  For 
a  few  years  he  works  and  saves,  living  according 
to  a  'standard  of  life'  which  shocks  his  older 
established  neighbors,  and  we  may  guess  would 
often  shock  his  people  at  home.  At  first  he 
makes  plans  for  going  back,  sends  his  savings 
home,  and  perhaps  goes  back  himself.  But  he 
usually  returns  to  this  country,  with  a  wife. 
America  has  now  become  his  home,  savings  are 
invested  here,  land  is  bought,  and  a  little  house 
built.  The  growing  children  are  educated  in 
American  schools,  learn  American  ways,  and 
forcibly  elevate  the  'standard  of  life'  of  the 
family.  The  second  generation,  in  the  fervor 
of  its  enthusiasm  for  change  and  progress  be- 
comes turbulent,  unruly,  and  is  despaired  of. 

"But  out  of  the  chaos  emerges  a  third  gen- 
eration, of  creditable  character,  from  whom  much 
may  be  expected.  Our  Austrian,  Hungarian,  and 
Russian  newcomers  are  still  in  the  first  and 
second  stages,  and  there  seems  no  good  reason 
why  they  should  not  pull  through  successfully  to 
the  third.  But  in  that  endeavor  we  can  either 
help  or  materially  hinder  them,  according  to  our 


Immigration  and  National  Character  259 


treatment  of  them,  as  employees,  as  producers, 
as  fellow  citizens.  America,  for  her  own  sake, 
owes  to  the  immigrant  not  only  the  opportunities 
for  'life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness' 
that  she  promises  to  every  man,  but  a  sympathetic 
appreciation  of  his  humanity,  and  an  intelligent 
assistance  in  developing  it."^ 

This  is  a  picture  of  progress  in  assimilation  How  the 
to  be  remembered,  and  the  conclusion  is  admir- 
ably  expressed.  Assimilation  is  made  easy  when 
the  wheels  of  contact  are  oiled  by  kindness  and 
sympathy.  The  children  lead  the  way  to  Ameri- 
canization. Mr.  Brandenburg  gives  this  report 
of  a  conversation  overheard  in  an  Italian  tene- 
ment in  New  York,  the  parties  being  a  mother, 
father,  and  the  oldest  of  three  daughters:  "Said 
the  mother  in  very  forcible  Tuscan :  'You  shall 
speak  Italian  and  nothing  else,  if  I  must  kill  you ;, 
for  what  will  your  grandmother  say  when  you 
go  back  to  the  old  country,  if  you  talk  this  pig's 
English?'  'Aw,  g'wan!  Youse  tink  I'm  goin* 
to  talk  dago  'n'  be  called  a  guinea !  Not  on  your 
life.  I'm  'n  American,  I  am,  'n  you  go  'way  back 
an'  sit  down.'  The  mother  evidently  understood 
the  reply  well  enough,  for  she  poured  forth  a 
torrent  of  Italian,  and  then  the  father  ended  mat- 
ters by  saying  in  mixed  Italian  and  English: 
'Shut  up,  both  of  you.  I  wish  I  spoke  English 
like  the  children  do.'   Many  parents  have  learned 


•Kate  H.Claghorn,  in  Charities  for  December,  1904. 


26o  Aliens  or  Americans? 


good  English  in  order  to  escape  being  laughed 
at  or  despised  by  their  children."^ 

The  language  is  not  classic,  but  it  is  that  of 
real  life  such  as  these  children  have  to  endure. 
The  rapidity  with  which  foreigners  become 
Americanized  is  illustrated,  said  Dr.  Charles  B. 
Spahr,  by  the  experience  of  a  gentleman  in  Bos- 
ton. In  his  philanthropic  work  he  had  gotten 
quite  a  hold  on  the  Italian  population.  A  small 
boy  once  asked  him :  "Are  you  a  Protestant  ?" 
He  said  "Yes,"  and  the  boy  seemed  disappointed. 
But  presently  he  brightened  up  and  said,  "You 
are  an  American,  aren't  you?"  "Yes."  "So 
am  I !"  with  satisfaction.  Children  become 
American  to  the  extent  that  they  do  not  like  to 
have  it  known  that  they  have  foreign  parents. 
One  little  girl  of  German  parentage  said  of  her 
teacher:  "She's  a  lady — she  can't  speak  German 
at  all."  Where  assimilation  is  slow,  it  is  quite 
as  likely  to  be  the  fault  of  the  natives  as  of  the 
immigrants,  much  more  likely,  indeed.  How 
can  he  learn  American  ways  who  is  carefully  and 
rudely  excluded  from  them?  We  build  a  Chinese 
wall  of  exclusiveness  around  ourselves,  our 
churches,  and  communities,  and  then  blame  the 
foreigner  for  not  forcing  his  way  within. 

In  a  thoughtful  treatment  of  this  whole  sub- 
ject, Mr.  Sidney  Sampson  says:- 


•Broughton  Brandenburg,  Imported  Americans,  19. 
'Sidney  Sampson,  pamphlst,  "  The  Immigratioa  Problem.' 


Immigration  and  National  Character  261 


"It  has  become  a  pressing  and  anxious  question  The  Real 
whether  American  institutions,  with  all  their 
flexibility  and  their  facility  of  application  to  new 
social  conditions,  will  continue  to  endure  the 
strain  put  upon  them  by  the  rapid  and  ceaseless 
introduction  of  foreign  elements,  unused,  and 
wholly  unused  in  great  measure,  to  a  system  of 
government  radically  differing  from  that  under 
which  they  have  been  educated.  Can  these 
diverse  elements  be  brought  to  work  in  har- 
mony with  the  American  Idea?  The  centuries 
of  subjection  to  absolutism,  or  even  despotism,  to 
which  the  ancestors  of  many  of  the  immigrant 
classes  have  been  accustomed,  has  formed  a  type 
of  political  character  which  cannot,  except  after 
long  training,  be  brought  into  an  understanding 
of,  and  sympathy  with,  republican  principles. 
This  is  by  far  the  most  important  aspect  of  the 
question,  much  more  so  than  questions  of  indus- 
trial competition." 

If  the  republic  will  not  ultimately  endure  harm, 
he  believes  industrial  questions  will  slowly  but 
surely  right  themselves ;  if  otherwise,  none  even 
of  the  wisest  can  foresee  the  result.  We  give  his 
conclusion : 

"What  is  to  be  the  outcome  of  this  movement  Optimism  the 
of  the  nations  upon  American  political  and  indus-  ^'^"* 
trial  life  is  a  question  which  confronts  us  with  a 
problem  never  before  presented  in  the  world's 
history.   Upon  a  review  of  the  entire  situation  I 


26?  Aliens  or  Americans? 


think  we  may  be  optimists.  Notwithstanding  all 
unfavorable  features,  there  are  antagonizing  ele- 
ments constantly  at  work,  not  the  less  potent 
because  they  work  silently.  We  may  attach 
undue  importance  to  statistics  merely. 
AssimUating  "Studcuts  of  the  immigration  problem  do  not 
Agencies  sufficiently  observe  the  influences — in  fact,  the 
immigrant  may  not  himself  be  conscious  of 
them — which  year  after  year  tend  to  adjust  his 
habits  of  thought  and  his  political  views  and 
actions  to  his  new  environment.  Freedom  of 
suffrage,  educational  advantages,  improved  in- 
dustrial conditions,  the  dignity  of  citizenship, 
equal  laws,  protection  of  property — all  these 
nourish  in  him  an  increasing  respect  for  the 
American  system ;  and  we  have  reason  to  believe 
that,  under  proper  legislation,  the  combined  influ- 
ence of  all  these  will  in  the  long  run  fully  neutral- 
ize the  distinctly  unfavorable  results  of  future 
immigration." 

Solution  by  With  this  wc  are  in  accord,  provided  the  Chris- 
Forces  tian  people  of  America  can  be  brought  to  see  and 
do  their  whole  duty  by  the  aliens.  The  solution 
of  the  problem  demands  the  combined  forces  of 
our  educational,  social,  political,  and  evangelical 
life.  In  that  solution  is  involved  the  destiny  of 
ultimate  America. 


Immigration  and  National  Character  263; 


QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  VII 

Aim:  To  Realize  the  Effect  of  Immigration  Upon 
THE  National  Character  and  Our  Individual 
Responsibility  for  Improving  Conditions 

I.  Reasons  for  Concern. 

1.  *  Do  you  think  that  immigration  makes  a  very- 

serious  problem  for  the  United  States?  Why? 
Mention  others  who  think  differently.  Why  do 
you  not  agree  with  them? 

2.  *  Are  there  any  foreigners  in  your  neighbor- 

hood? What  are  they  and  what  can  you  do 
for  them? 

3.  Do  these  immigrants  long  retain  their  foreign 
aspect  and  ways?  In  what  respects  do  they 
change  most  quickly? 

4.  What  does  Professor  Mayo-Smith  say  about 
keeping  American  ideals  intact?  Must  Protest- 
ant Christianity  be  guarded? 

II.  Threatening  Changes. 

5.  In  what  respects  has  immigration  since  1820 
introduced  un-American  standards  ? 

6.  *  Have  the  average  character  and  the  plane  of 

living  of  the  immigrants  been  raised  or  low- 
ered by  their  coming  here  ?  Same  as  to 
wages?    As  to  intelligence? 

7.  *  How  are  our  public  schools  affected?   Is  there 

any  menace  to  our  school  system?  Can  we 
provide  compulsory  education  for  all  the  chil- 
dren? 

III.  Other  Effects. 

8.  Do  these  new  Americans  learn  to  use  the  ballot 
rightly?    Can  they  learn? 


264 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


9.  Does  their  coming  make  genuine  Christianity 
more  or  less  prominent  in  the  national  life? 
What  effect  does  it  have  on  Sunday  observ- 
ance?  Does  it  lessen  or  increase  lawbreaking? 

IV.    National  Bulwarks. 

10.  What  are  the  safeguards  pointed  out  by 
Professor  Boyesen?    By  ex-President  Seelye? 

11.  How  can  Socialism  be  met? 

12.  *  Will    an>'thing    but    Qiristianitj-  effectively 

guard  our  institutions? 

13.  How  far  will  material  improvements  help  to 
uplift  and  assimilate  the  newcomers? 

14.  Do  the  children  learn  patriotism  from  their 
new  country?  Do  they  keep  it  when  grown 
up? 

15.  *  Is  there  good  reason  for  being  optimistic? 

Upon  what  condition  may  we  be  hopeful? 

References  for  Advanced  Study. — Chapter  VII 

I.    Study  further  some  of  the  specific  effects  of  the 
immigrants'  presence. 
Wame :  The  Slav  Invasion,  V,  VI. 
Wood :  Americans  in  Process,  VII,  VIII. 
Riis :  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  XVIII,  XXI. 
II.    Wliat  can  you  learn  about  the  present  status  of  the 
parochial   school   movement,   especially   in  your 
own  vicinity  ? 

Refer  to  local  periodicals  and  daily  papers. 
III.    Is  assimilation  of  foreigners  taking  place  every- 
where, or  only  in  certain  places? 
McLanahan :  Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech,  I. 
Hall:  Immigration,  172,  182. 
Wood :  Americans  in  Process,  XII. 
Strong :  The  Twentieth  Centurj-  City.  IV. 


Immigration  and  National  Character  265 

Are  our  school  facilities,  actual  or  prospective, 
likely  to  prove  sufficient  for  the  demands  made 
upon  them? 

Riis:  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  XV,  XVI. 
Wood :  Americans  in  Process,  X. 
Hunter:  Poverty,  V. 


The  Christian  Churches  in  America 
stand  face  to  face  with  a  tremendous 
task.  It  is  a  challenge  to  their  faith, 
their  devotion,  their  zeal.  The  accom- 
plishment of  it  will  mean  not  only  thk 
ascendancy  of  Christianity  in  the  home- 
land, but  also  the  gaining  of  a  position 
of  vantage  for  world-wide  evangelization. 
— E.  E.  Chivers,  D.D. 


VIII 

THE  HOME  MISSION  OPPORTUNITY 


267 


The  question  of  supreme  interest  to  us  is  the  religious 
question.  What  share  shall  the  Church  have  in  making 
Christian  Americans  of  these  immigrants?  How  may 
Church  and  State  work  together  for  the  solution  of  the 
problem,  on  the  solution  of  which  very  largely  the 
future  prosperity  of  the  State  and  the  Church  depends. — 
Charles  L.  Thompson,  D.D. 

The  future  success  of  missions  will  be  largely  affected 
by  the  success  of  the  Church  in  dealing  with  problems 
that  lie  at  her  very  door.  The  connection  between  home 
and  foreign  missionary  work  is  living.  The  conversion 
of  the  world  is  bound  up  with  the  national  character 
of  professedly  Christian  lands. — Rev.  Herbert  Anderson, 
English  Missionary  in  India. 

"The  blood  of  the  people!  changeless  tide  through 

centurj',  creed,  and  race. 
Still  one,  as  the  sweet  salt  sea  is  one,  though  tempered 

by  sun  and  place. 
The  same  in  ocean  currents  and  the  same  in  sheltered 

seas : 

Forever  the  fountain  of  common  hopes  and  kindly 
sympathies. 

Indian  and  Negro,  Saxon  and  Celt,  Teuton  and  Latin 
and  Gaul, 

Mere  surface  shadow  and  sunshine,  while  the  sounding 
unifies  all ! 

One  love,  one  hope,  one  duty  theirs!  no  matter  the 
time  or  kin, 

There  never  was  a  separate  heart-beat  in  all  the  races 
of  men." 


263 


VIII 


THE  HOME  MISSION  OPPORTUNITY 

/.    Alien  Accessibility 
"^AVE  America  and  you  save  the  world."  a  unique 

Through  immigration  the  United  States  is 
in  a  unique  sense  the  most  foreign  country  and  the 
greatest  mission  field  on  the  globe.  "All  peoples 
that  on  earth  do  dwell"  have  here  their  repre- 
sentatives, gathered  by  a  divine  ordering  within 
easy  reach  of  the  gospel.  Through  them  the 
world  may  be  reached  in  turn.  Every  foreigner 
converted  in  America  becomes  directly  or  indi- 
rectly a  missionary  agent  abroad,  spreading 
knowledge  of  the  truth  among  his  kindred  and 
tribe. ^  The  greatness  of  the  opportunity  is  the 
measure  of  obligation.  God's  message  to  this 
nation  has  been  thus  interpreted:  "Here  are  all 
these  people ;  I  have  taken  them  from  the  over- 
crowded countries  where  they  were  living  and 
sent  them  to  you,  that  you  may  mass  your  forces 
and  lend  a  hand  to  sav«  them."  No  such  oppor- 
tunity ever  came  to  a  nation  before.   The  Chris- 

'Fung  Yuet  Mow,  Chinese  missionary  in  New  York,  says  that  at 
a  missionary  Conference  which  he  attended  in  Camton  there  were  fifty 
missionaries  present,  native  Chinese,  and  half  of  them  were  converted 
in  our  missions  in  Amerioa,  and  returned  home  to  seek  the  conver- 
sion of  their  people.  Everywhere  he  met  the  influence  of  Chinese 
who  found  Christ  in  this  country. 

269 


270 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


tian  church  must  seize  it  or  sink  into  deserved 
decadence  and  decay.  Only  a  missionary  church 
can  save  the  world  or  justify  its  own  existence. 
The  manner  in  which  American  Christianity 
deals  with  the  religious  problems  of  immigration 
will  decide  what  part  America  is  to  play  in  the 
evangelization  of  the  nations  abroad. 
The  Gospel      -yy^  j^^vc  now  reached  the  vital  part  of  our 

the  Chief,  . 

Pactor  .  subject.  We  have  learned  to  discriminate  be- 
tween peoples  and  find  the  good  in  all  of  them. 
We  have  seen  that  assimilation  is  essential  to 
national  soundness  and  strength.  But  we  have 
yet  to  realize  that  the  most  potential  factor  in 
assimilation  is  not  legislation  or  education  but 
evangelization.  There  is  no  power  like  the  gospel 
to  destroy  race  antipathies,  break  down  the  bars 
of  prejudice,  and  draw  all  peoples  into  unity, 
brotherhood,  and  liberty — that  spiritual  freedom 
wherewith  Christ  makes  free.  When  American 
Protestantism  sees  in  immigration  a  divine  mis- 
sion none  will  discover  in  it  thenceforth  a  human 
menace. 

Shan  America  Marvclous  mission,  involving  the  destiny  of 
chruuln  ^^^^  America.  A  writer  asks,  "Will  New  Eng- 
land be  kept  Christian?"  and  answers,  "That 
depends.  Population  is  greatly  changing.  Immi- 
grants from  all  parts  of  the  world  are  here. 
They  will  continue  to  come.  Unless  they  are 
molded  according  to  the  principles  of  our  reli- 
gion, they  will  greatly  increase  the  irreligious 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  271 


elements  of  New  England,  already  too  large.  ■•  

There  is  a  religious  basis  in  those  who  come, 
but  it  will  require  an  application  of  religious 
agencies  to  make  them  truly  Christian  citi- 
zens."i  Put  America  in  place  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  the  question  and  answer  will  be  as 
pertinent.  Shall  America  be  kept  Christian? 
That  depends.  It  depends  upon  what  American 
Christians  do. 

Few  of  the  immigrants  are  evangelical  in  reli-  immigrants 

,  ,  .  ,  ,  ,    not  EvangeV 

gion.  They  know  nothmg  of  our  gospel,  and  icai 
little  or  nothing  of  the  Bible.  The  religious 
principles  they  have  been  taught  are  totally 
opposed  to  the  spirit  of  our  free  institutions  of 
religion.  They  know  priestly  sovereignty  but  not 
soul  liberty.  They  are  the  creatures  of  a  system, 
and  the  system  is  thoroughly  un-American  and 
inimical  to  freedom  of  conscience  and  worship. 
But  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  them 
are  out  of  sorts  with  the  system  and  are  ready 
for  something  better.^  They  have  lost  faith  in 
their  Church  and  will  lose  it  in  religion  unless 
we  teach  them  the  gospel.  To  accomplish  this 
result  two  persons  must  be  changed — the  immi- 
grant and  the  American.  Alien  assimilation  de- 
pends largely  upon  American  attitude. 

'Henry  H.  Hamilton  in  the  Hom^  iWisi»o«ary.  •  •  "•  ■••  'i" 

'In  one  city  in  Massachusetts,  where  there  are  1,700  Italians 
only  fifty  or  sixty  attend  the  Roman  Catholic  Church;  and  in 
another,  of  6,000  Italians,  only  about  300  go  to  that  church.  They 
declare  that  they  are  tired  of  the  Romish  Church  and  have  lost 
faith  in  its  priests.  Similar  reports  come  from  all  parts  of  the 
country. 


2^2 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Queattoot 


Two  Ttmcijr  Two  qucstions  conffont  us  squarely  as  we 
approach  this  subject.  First,  the  common  one. 
What  do  we  think  of  the  immigrant?  And  sec- 
ond, the  less  common  but  not  less  important  one, 
What  does  the  immigrant  think  of  us?  It  will 
do  us  good,  as  Americans  and  as  Christians,  to 
consider  Ixjth  of  these  frankly.  Honestly,  what 
is  your  attitude  toward  the  ordinary  immigrant? 
Do  you  want  him  and  his  family,  if  he  has  one,  in 
your  church?  Do  you  not  prefer  to  have  him 
in  a  mission  by  himself?  Would  you  not  rather 
work  for  him  by  proxy  than  with  him  in  person? 
Do  you  not  pull  away  from  him  as  far  as  possible 
if  he  takes  a  seat  next  to  you  in  the  car  ?  Actual 
contact  is  apt  to  mean  contamination,  germs, 
physical  ills.  He  is  ignorant  and  uncultured.  You 
desire  his  conversion — in  the  mission.  You  wish 
him  well — at  a  convenient  distance.  You  would 
much  more  quickly  help  send  a  missionary  to  the 
Chinese  in  Cliina  than  be  a  missionary  to  a 
Chinaman  in  America,  would  you  not?  Think 
it  over,  Christian,  and  determine  your  personal 
relation  to  the  immigrant.  Is  he  a  brother  man, 
or  a  necessary  evil  ?  Will  you  estahdish  a  friendly 
relation  with  him,  or  hold  aloof  from  him?  Does 
your  attitude  need  to  be  changed? 

What,  now,  do  you  suppose  this  "undesirable" 
immigrant  thinks  of  America  and  Protestant 
Christianity?  What  has  he  reason  to  think,  in 
the  light  of  his  previous  dreams  and  present 


The  Allen 
PoLot  of  View 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  273 


realizations?  W^hat  does  Protestant  Christianity 
do  for  him  from  the  time  he  reaches  America? 
What  will  he  learn  of  our  free  institutions — in 
the  tenement  slums  or  labor  camps  or  from  the 
"bosses"  who  treat  him  as  cattle — that  will  teach 
him  to  prize  American  citizenship,  desire  reli- 
gious liberty,  or  lead  a  sober,  respectable  life? 
If  we  are  in  earnest  about  the  evangelization  of 
the  immigrant  we  must  put  ourselves  in  his  place 
occasionally  and  get  his  point  of  view.  When 
we  think  fairly  and  rightly  of  the  immigrant,  and 
treat  him  in  real  Christian  wise,  he  will  soon 
come  to  think  of  us  that  our  religion  is  real, 
and  this  will  be  a  long  step  toward  the  change 
■we  desire  him  to  undergo.  We  shall  never  ac- 
complish anything  until  we  realize  that  the  com- 
ing of  these  alien  millions  is  not  accidental  but 
providential. 

//.    Missionary  Beginnings 

The  first  human  touch  put  upon  the  immi-  Alien  Accessi- 
grant  in  the  new  environment  is  vastlv  important         "  Home 

°      .  -        '  _  _    Mission  Possi- 

in  its  effects.  He  is  easily  approachable,  if  biiity 
rightly  approached.  Alien  accessibility  makes 
home  mission  possibility.  The  approach  may  not 
at  first  be  on  the  distinctively  religious  side,  but 
there  i«  a  way  of  access  on  some  side.  A  living 
gospel  incarnated  in  a  living,  loving  man  or 
•woman  is  the  "open  sesame"  to  confidence  first 
and  conversion  afterward.    Make  the  foreigner 


274  Aliens  or  Americans? 


feel  that  you  are  interested  in  him  as  a  man,  and 
the  door  is  open  beyond  the  power  of  priestcraft 
to  shut  it.  The  priest  may  for  a  time  keep  the 
Catholic  immigrant  away  from  the  Protestant 
church  but  not  from  the  Protestant  cordiality 
and  sympathy ;  and  if  these  be  shown  it  will  not 
be  long  before  the  immigrant,  learning  rapidly  to 
think  for  himself,  will  settle  the  church-going 
according  to  his  own  notion.  A  kind  word  has 
more  attractive  power  than  a  cathedral.  You  will 
never  win  an  Italian  as  long  as  you  call  him  or 
think  of  him  as  "dago,"  nor  a  Jew  while  you 
nickname  him  "sheeny."  The  immigrant  wants 
neither  charity  nor  contempt,  but  a  man's  recog- 
nition and  rights,  and  when  American  Christians 
give  him  these  he  will  believe  in  their  Chris- 
tianity and  be  apt  to  accept  it  for  himself. 

Home  mission  work  of  a  distinctive  character 
should  and  does  begin  at  the  point  of  landing  in 
the  New  World.  At  Ellis  Island,  for  example, 
there  are  now  some  thirty  missionaries,  repre- 
senting the  leading  Christian  denominations. 
This  gives  proof  of  the  partial  awakening  of  the 
Churches  to  the  importance  of  this  work.  It  is 
only  of  late  years  that  any  special  attention  has 
been  paid  to  the  welfare  of  the  incomers,  either 
by  State  or  Church.  Now  both  are  seeking  to 
throw  safeguards  around  the  immigrants  and 
secure  them  a  fair  start.  A  large  room  is  set 
apart  for  the  missionaries  in  the  receiving  build- 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  275 


ing  at  Ellis  Island,  and  they  perform  a  service 
of  great  good  both  to  the  aliens  and  the  country. 
First  impressions  count  tremendously,  and  happy 
is  it  for  the  immigrant  who  gets  this  initial  im- 
pression from  contact  with  a  Christian  missionary 
instead  of  a  street  sharper.  Once  put  the  touch  of 
human  kindness  upon  the  immigrant  and  he  is 
not  likely  to  forget  it.  The  hour  of  homesick- 
ness, of  strangeness  in  a  strange  land,  of  per- 
plexity and  trouble,  is  the  hour  of  hours  when 
sympathy  and  help  come  most  gratefully.  The 
missionaries  are  on  hand  at  this  critical  juncture. 
Thousands  of  immigrants  are  saved  from  falling 
into  bad  hands  and  evil  associations  through 
their  zealous  efforts.  Thousands  are  supplied 
with  copies  of  the  Testament,  the  sick  and 
sorrowful  are  comforted,  the  rejected  are 
tenderly  ministered  to  in  their  distress,  and  the 
gospel  is  preached  in  the  practical  way  that 
makes  it  a  living  remembrance.  This  is  one 
way  in  which  a  true  and  enduring  assimilation 
is  begun. 

Here  is  a  single  illustration  of  the  unexpected 
results  of  this  first  Christian  touch  in  the  new 
world.  One  of  the  women  missionaries  was  very 
kind  to  a  Bohemian  family,  helping  the  father 
find  his  destination  and  get  settled.  At  parting, 
the  missionary  gave  him  a  Testament  and  asked 
him  to  read  it  when  in  trouble.  He  thanked  her 
for  all  her  kindness  to  him  and  his  family,  and 


276  Aliens  or  Americans? 


said  he  would  keep  the  book  for  her  sake.  He 
put  it  away  and  forgot  all  about  it.  One  day  his 
little  girl  got  the  book  and  tore  a  leaf  out.  When 
he  learned  what  she  had  done  he  was  very  angry, 
and  punished  her  for  tearing  the  book,  saying 
that  the  kind  lady  at  Ellis  Island  had  given  it  to 
him,  and  he  had  promised  to  keep  it.  He  threat- 
ened the  child  with  severe  punishment  if  she 
touched  it  again.  "What  is  the  book,  papa?" 
she  asked.  He  said  he  did  not  know  what  it 
was,  but  the  lady  gave  it  to  him,  and  that  was 
enough. 

The  Go«p«rs  The  little  girl  kept  asking  about  it  until  at 
length  his  curiosity  was  aroused,  and  he  took  the 
Testament  to  find  out  for  himself.  As  he  began 
to  read  the  story  of  Jesus  he  became  interested, 
and  presently  had  his  wife  reading  it  also.  Such 
wonderful  things  he  had  never  heard  of  before, 
and  he  thought  he  would  tell  the  priest  about  it, 
for  if  the  priest  knew  about  it  he  would  surely  tell 
the  people.  The  priest  forbade  him  to  look  into 
the  book  again,  saying  that  it  was  a  bad  book  and 
would  cost  him  his  soul  if  he  read  it.  This  only 
ended  the  influence  of  the  priest,  for  the  immi- 
grant said  such  a  good  person  as  Jesus  could  not 
do  anybody  any  harm,  he  was  sure  of  that.  He 
decided  to  go  back  to  Ellis  Island  and  ask  the 
kind  lady  about  it.  The  light  came,  and  he  and 
his  family  are  earnest  members  of  a  Christian 
church,  showing  their  gratitude  by  trying  with 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  277 


true  missionary  spirit  to  bring  others  of  their 
race  to  the  Master.^ 

This  missionary  work,  coming  at  the  critical  immigrant 
time,  needs  to  be  extended  and  dignified.  It 
should  be  so  enlarged  that  it  would  be  possible 
to  reach  in  some  way  the  great  mass  of  the  new- 
comers, where  now  it  touches  comparatively  few. 
There  should  be  a  great  interdenominational 
headquarters  building,  thoroughly  equipped  for 
every  kind  of  helpful  service.  A  large  force  of 
trained  workers  of  different  nationalities  should 
be  employed,  so  that  all  kinds  of  needs  might  be 
met.  It  is  entirely  possible  to  establish  a  center 
that  would  powerfully  impress  the  immigrants 
with  the  worth  and  importance  of  the  Christian 
religion.  But  no  small  affair  will  do.  Our  great 
denominations  have  the  money  in  plenty,  and 
certainly  have  the  talent  to  organize  such  a  work 
as  the  world  has  never  yet  seen.  And  what  a 
chance  for  personal  service  such  an  institution 
would  afford.    This  would  be  a  living  object 

'There  are  numerous  instances  equally  remarkable.  Many  young 
people  express  their  desire  to  lead  true  lives  and  the  missionaries 
often  learn  how  well  the  resolutions  made  at  Ellis  Island  have  been 
kept.  One  missionary  says:  "I  meet  one  here  and  another  there, 
who  tell  me  that  I  met  them  first  three  or  four  years  ago,  when  they 
first  reached  this  country,  strangers  to  Christ  as  well  as  to  me;  but 
now  they  say,  '  We  love  to  tell  the  story  of  Jesus  and  his  love.'  Some 
of  the  denominations  have  houses  fitted  up  for  the  temporary 
entertainment  of  immigrants  who  need  a  safe  place  while  waiting 
to  hear  from  friends  or  secure  employment.  This  missionary  work 
admirably  supplements  the  excellent  service  rendered  by  the  pro- 
tective organizations,  of  which  the  United  Hebrews  Charities  is  per- 
haps the  most  influential,  dispensing  funds  amounting  to  $270,000 
a  year,  including  the  Baron  Hirsch  fund.  There  is  also  an  Immi- 
grant Girls'  Home  which  saves  many  from  temptation  while  they 
are  seeking  employment,  and  helps  them  secure  places  in  Christian 
families. 


278  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Present  Work 
for  the 
Foreigners 


Abandoned 
Fields 


lesson  of  Christianity  helping  the  world,  that 
might  fitly  stand  beside  the  statue  of  "Liberty  en- 
lightening the  world." 

///.    Protestantism  and  the  Alien 

How  are  the  evangelical  denominations  meet- 
ing their  imperative  obligation  to  evangelize  the 
multitudes  brought  to  their  very  doors?  When 
the  immigrant  has  passed  through  the  gates,  what 
attention  is  paid  to  him?  Take  it  in  the  centers 
of  population,  where  the  mass  of  the  immigrants 
go,  and  the  showing  is  not  very  imposing  as  yet. 

The  truth  is  that  as  the  foreigners  have  moved 
into  down-town  New  York  the  old-time  Protes- 
tant churches  have  moved  out,  in  great  measure 
abandoning  the  field,  on  the  assumption  that 
there  was  no  constituency  to  maintain  an  Ameri- 
can church.  It  did  not  seem  to  dawn  upon  the 
rich  churches  which  moved  up  town  that  the 
new  population  needed  evangelization  and  could 
be  evangelized.  The  result  is  that  the  immigrant 
accustomed  to  imposing  churches  and  splendid 
architecture  and  impressive  ritual,  sees  little  to 
impress  him  with  the  existence  of  Protestant 
Christianity.  Go  through  that  teeming  East 
Side  in  New  York,  and  here  and  there  you  will 
find  a  mission  supported  in  desultory  fashion  by 
some  church  or  city  mission  society  or  mission 
board,  and  in  quarters  conducive  to  anything  but 
worship  or  respect.    There  is  nothing  to  make 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  279 


the  new  arrival  feel  the  presence  and  power  of 
the  religious  faith  that  created  this  free  Republic 
and  still  predominates  in  its  best  life.  So  it  is 
wherever  you  go.  The  home  mission  work  is  in 
its  beginnings,  and  these  are  manifestly  feeble 
and  inadequate. 

The  Roman  Catholics  teach  us  some  practi-  An  Example 
cal  lessons.  They  build  large  and  impres- 
sive churches  for  the  immigrants.  They  abandon 
no  fields,  and  immediately  occupy  those  left  by 
Protestants.  They  expend  money  where  it  will 
go  furthest.  The  Protestants  of  New  York 
should  have  been  far-sighted  enough  to  plant 
strong  evangelistic  and  philanthropic  institutions 
in  the  fields  from  which  they  withdrew  their 
churches.  Valuable  ground  has  been  lost  for 
want  of  this  missionary  insight  and  impulse. 

The  conditions  in  New  York  are  symptomatic  Need  of  an 
of  those  obtaining  generally,  in  country  as  well 
as  city.  The  Protestant  churches,  not  recogniz- 
ing the  supreme  home  mission  opportunity  to- 
Christianize  the  immigrants,  have  in  many  cases 
become  weak  where  a  zealous  evangelism  would 
have  kept  them  strong.  Too  many  of  the  Ameri- 
can Churches  have  been  satisfied  with  their  own 
prosperity  and  unmindful  of  the  growing  need 
of  the  gospel  all  around  them.  As  a  missionary 
worker  says  -.^  "There  are  plenty  of  Christians 
who  believe  that  the  gospel  is  the  power  of  God 

•  Rev.  Joel  S.  Ives,  pamphlet,  "The  Foreigner  in  New  England." 


28o  Aliens  or  Americans? 


unto  salvation  in  a  vague  and  general  way ;  but 
there  are  not  enough  people  who  clearly  believe 
that  the  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion to  the  Italian  working  on  the  railroad,  or  the 
Hungarian  in  the  shops,  or  the  German  on  the 
farm.  Too  many  of  us  have  no  faith  at  all  in 
foreign  missions  at  home." 
Reason*  for  It  is  impossible  to  enter  into  details  of  what 
Condiuons  hctn  Undertaken  by  the  different  evangelical 
denominations.  Reference  to  the  tables  fur- 
nished by  various  Home  Mission  Boards^  will 
indicate,  as  far  as  bald  figures  can  do  so,  the 
extent  of  the  work  among  the  various  peoples. 
The  statistics  show  that  in  the  country,  especially 
in  the  West,  missions  among  the  earlier  type 
of  immigrants — the  German  and  Scandinavian — 
have  long  been  maintained  with  success.  There 
are  hundreds  of  strong  and  prosperous  churches 
among  these  peoples.  For  the  later  immigrants 
less  has  been  done,  although  the  need  is  far 
greater.  Some  of  the  reasons  for  the  small  pro- 
portions of  this  work  are  manifest.  In  order  to 
reach  the  Slavs  and  Italians  there  must  be  native 
missionaries,  and  these  cannot  be  found  offhand. 
After  converts  are  made,  those  who  are  fitted  to 
preach  and  teach  must  be  trained,  and  schools 
must  be  provided  for  the  training.^   The  difiicul- 

'Appendix  C. 

'Some  denominations  already  have  theological  training  depart- 
ments for  foreign  people.  The  French-American  College  at 
Springfield,  Massachusetts,  is  the  nrst  distinctive  training  school 
for  foreigners. 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  281 

ties  of  language  must  first  be  overcome.  The 
process  requires  time  and  patience  and  large  re- 
sources. Missions  cannot  be  imposed  upon  these 
foreign  peoples  from  without.  Force  cannot  be 
used.  Access  must  be  found,  and  the  gospel  seed 
be  sown  as  opportunity  occurs.  There  must  be 
a  natural  development  in  a  work  like  this,  which 
deals  with  individuals,  and  that  by  persuasion. 
The  present  work  must  not  be  judged  too 
harshly,  therefore,  as  reflecting  upon  the 
churches.  Only  of  late  has  the  need  been  recog- 
nized by  the  leaders  in  Christian  effort.  Dr. 
Thompson  puts  the  situation  in  true  light,  when 
he  says: 

"It  goes  without  saying  that  the  church  has  The  Point 
not  so  far  taken  its  full  share  of  the  responsibility.  Departure 
She  has  not  realized  the  gravity  of  the  situation. 
Indeed,  only  in  late  years  has  it  emerged  in  its 
full  significance.  Consequently  the  work  of  the 
various  Christian  bodies  has  been  sporadic,  rather 
than  systematic  and  persistent.  There  has  been 
no  serious  endeavor  to  deal  with  it  as  a  problem 
and  to  try  to  compass  it.  All  the  Churches  have 
worked  among  the  foreigners,  but  it  has  been 
determined  by  local  conditions  and  needs  which 
have  appealed  to  Christian  people  here  and  there  ; 
that,  however,  is  very  different  from  an  intelli- 
gent view  of  the  whole  situation  and  a  campaign 
intended  and  adapted  to  solve  the  whole  prob- 
lem.  We  have  reached  a  point  in  the  immigra- 


282 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Success  of 
Earnest  Effort 


Tent  Worlc 
Results  in  a 
Church 


tion  problem  where  it  must  be  solved  broadly, 
philosophically,  and  by  the  combination  of  all 
forces — civic,  social,  moral,  and  religious — to 
bring  about  the  healthy  assimilation  of  all  foreign 
elements  into  the  life  of  the  body  politic."* 

We  have  said  the  foreigner  is  accessible.  How 
true  this  is,  when  earnest  and  genuine  effort  is 
made,  is  shown  by  the  tent  work  in  many  cities. 
Take  it  among  the  Italians  in  New  York,  for 
example.   A  tent  worker  tells  the  results 

"New  York  City  within  a  year  will  hold  a  half 
million  Italians.  What  is  the  Church  of  America 
to  do  with  them?  Will  they  listen  to  the  gospel? 
Who  has  tried  to  reach  them? 
^/  "During  the  past  summer  a  company  of 
earnest  workers  for  God  and  man  tested 
the  problem  of  saving  men  to  save  New 
York.  They  started  an  open-air  and  tent 
campaign.  They  proceeded  on  the  simple 
hypothesis  that  'Nothing  will  elevate  the  man,  no 
matter  how  good  he  is  morally,  except  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ,  for  it  alone  is  the  power  of  God 
to  change  the  whole  man  and  save  him  eternally.' 
They  drove  their  tent-stakes  into  the  ground  in 
an  Italian  quarter  and  began  to  preach  and  to 
sing  the  gospel  of  grace  triumphant  into  the  ears 
and  hearts  of  Roman  Catholic  Italians.  Except 
when  the  weather  was  exceptionally  bad,  from 

'  "Tlie  Foreign  Problem."   Published  by  the  Presbyterian  Board 
of  Home  Missions. 

'Rev.  F.  H.  Allen,  in  Home  Missionary  for  January-,  1906. 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  283 


five  to  six  hundred  persons  were  there  nightly. 
They  were  met  just  as  the  foreign  missionary 
would  meet  them.  Not  one  among  them,  per- 
haps, Christian  from  a  purely  evangelistic  stand- 
point, and  yet,  what  was  the  result  ?  In  less  than 
one  year  they  expect  to  have  a  permanent  church 
building  to  cost  $60,000 ;  something  like  two  hun- 
dred are  ready  to  enter  and  form  a  Protestant 
church." 

Is  this  a  hopeful  work,  this  effort  to  evangelize  An  ingenious 

,       ,       .  r  1       r  11       ■  •        Italian  Exped- 

the  foreigners?  Let  the  following  unique  in-  i^^t 
stance  give  its  answer,  and  illustrate  also  the 
intertwinings  of  the  home  and  foreign  work. 
In  a  quarry  at  Monson,  Massachusetts,  where 
over  three  hundred  Italians  are  employed,  there 
was  among  the  number  a  man  who  had  been  con- 
verted in  Italy,  through  the  faithful  efforts  of  an 
American  missionary.  When  this  convert 
reached  the  Massachusetts  quarry,  his  heart 
burned  within  him  as  he  realized  the  spiritual 
condition  of  his  countrymen,  who  were  living 
without  any  religious  services.  He  labored  so 
effectively  for  their  salvation  that  in  a  few 
months  seventeen  of  the  workmen  were  con- 
verted, and  they  held  regular  meetings  for  prayer 
and  study  of  the  Bible.  At  length  they  sent  a 
message,  signed  by  every  convert,  to  a  state  mis- 
sionary society:  "In  God's  name,  send  us  a  mis- 
sionary." A  missionary  was  sent  to  organize 
them  into  a  church.   They  had  no  meeting-place, 


284  Aliens  or  Americans? 


and  in  this  emergency  one  of  the  converts  pro- 
posed that  a  room  be  built  on  the  roof  of  his 
cottage.  This  was  done  by  the  little  band,  and 
there  they  worshiped  until  the  place  was  too 
small.  Then  the  first  story  was  extended  in  the 
rear,  giving  space  for  a  comfortable  chapel,  and 
the  family  occupied  the  second  story  or  roof- 
room.  This  indicates  the  ingenuity  as  well  as  the 
generous  and  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  these 
Italian  Christians,  who  maintain  a  regular  pas- 
tor and  full  services.  How  many  of  our  Ameri- 
can churches,  with  much  larger  resources,  could 
show  a  better  record  ?  What  American  Christian 
would  have  thought  of  building  a  meeting-house 
on  his  home  roof,  or  would  have  been  willing  to 
do  it  if  he  had  thought  of  it?  In  devotion  and 
liberality  the  converted  aliens  often  set  noble 
examples  for  American  Christians.^ 

IV.    The  Call  to  Great  Things 


How  to  Save 
Our  Amerion 


Missionaries  have  been  surprised  at  the  eager- 
churchcs        ness  with  which  they  were  received  by  the 

*  Rev.  C.  W.  Shelton  reports  typical  cases,  that  could  be  dupli- 
cated by  every  secretary  of  a  Home  Missionary  Society  and 
every  missionary.  In  one  niission  ehiirch  a  young  Swede  girl  gave 
$25  a  month,  out  of  her  earnings  as  cook,  toward  the  pastor's  sup- 
port. In  a  Finnish  church,  another  yoiing  woman  pledged  $30  a 
month  out  a  salary  of  $50.  A  Chinese  mission  in  California  supports 
three  native  workers  in  China.  A  Slav  Mission  Sunday-school  in 
Braddock,  Pennsylvania,  with  thirty  members,  gave  out  of  its 
poverty,  as  one  year's  record,  $6  for  home  missions,  $1.25  for  windows 
in  a  new  Bohemian  church,  $1  for  missionary  schools,  $6.35  for 
maps,  and  $6  for  a  foreign  missionary  ship.  Nearly  fifty  cents  a 
member  these  Slavs  gave;  and  that  amount  per  member  from  all 
Christian  Churches  and  Sunday-schools  would  make  the  missionary 
treasuries  much  fuller  than  at  present. 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  285 


Italians,  Bohemians,  Poles,  Slovaks,  and  Lithuan- 
ians, and  others  commonly  regarded  as  most 
hopeless.  The  Bohemians  have  a  large  number 
of  freethinkers — over  300  societies  of  them — • 
who  have  sought  to  draw  their  people  away  from 
Christianity  or  any  form  of  religion ;  but  they 
also  have  a  large  number  of  earnest  and  devoted 
Christian  converts,  who  know  the  power  of  the 
gospel  to  save,  and  are  preaching  and  teaching  it. 
In  Pennsylvania,  among  the  Slav  peoples,  simple-  Missionary 
hearted  native  workers  who  have  found  the  way  station* 
of  life  are  making  that  way  known  to  others, 
and  local  churches  in  many  places  are  becoming 
revived  through  their  active  work  for  these  for- 
eigners. Many  churches  now  extinct  would  be 
alive  if  they  had  seen  their  opportunity.  If 
those  churches  that  have  lost  most  of  their  old- 
time  membership  could  be  filled  with  missionary 
zeal,  and  be  sustained  as  evangelistic  centers,  the 
church  life  of  the  mining  regions  would  become 
a  different  thing  once  more.  The  only  way  to 
save  these  American  churches  is  for  them  to  save 
the  immigrants.  The  same  thing  is  true  in  all 
country  sections  where  the  foreigners  have 
become  numerous.  The  need  everywhere  is  for 
money  to  plant  and  equip  thoroughly,  and  main- 
tain efficiently,  these  evangelizing  churches  in 
every  community.  These  institutions  must  be 
more  than  meeting-houses,  open  a  few  times  a 
week. 


286  Aliens  or  Americans? 


A  Great 
Mission  En- 
terprise 


Church  Feder- 
ation  for 
Service 


The  institutional  church  always  open,  with 
something  to  meet  every  legitimate  need  of 
old  and  young,  so  that  the  evangelical  center 
shall  be  the  center  of  community  life,  can  alone 
meet  the  requirement.  A  great  force  of  workers 
must  be  raised  up,  and  this  means  training 
schools.  No  more  important  educational  work 
can  be  done  in  our  country  in  the  present  emer- 
gency. These  schools  might  be  interdenomina- 
tional, with  special  classes  where  required  for  the 
specific  denominational  training,  and  thus  a  united 
Protestantism  could  be  rallied  to  their  support, 
and  make  them  of  size  sufficient  to  impress  all 
with  the  real  consequence  of  the  work  . 

In  this  work  the  interdenominational  comity 
and  cooperation  represented  in  the  federation  of 
evangelical  churches  would  secure  the  best  cov- 
ering of  the  whole  field,  in  the  true  fraternal  and 
Christian  spirit.  What  all  desire  supremely  is  the 
salvation  of  the  immigrants.  And  only  a  united 
Protestantism  can  present  such  a  massive  front 
as  to  impress  the  world.  This  work  must  be 
large  enough  to  be  self-respecting.  At  present 
it  is  extremely  doubtful  if  there  is  enough  of  it 
to  make  individual  members  of  the  churches  feel 
its  worth  and  importance.  There  should  be  a 
mighty  advance  movement,  calling  for  millions 
of  money  and  thousands  of  missionaries,  and 
reaching  into  a  multitude  of  places  now  destitute 
of  gospel  influences.   Then  the  alien  in  America 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  287 

would  realize  the  American  spirit  and  purpose 
and  interest  in  hi|fi,  and  the  birth  of  a  new  citi- 
zenship would  begin. 

This  is  the  day  of  large  enterprises.  The  home 
mission  movement  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
foreign  peoples  in  America  ought  to  be  in  the 
forefront  of  the  great  enterprises.  The  real  hope 
of  America  lies  in  the  success  of  this  work.  The 
best  brain  of  the  Christian  laity  should  be 
engaged  in  this  business. 

In  New  York  City  alone  the  Christian  denomi- 
nations ought  to  raise  and  expend  at  least  a 
million  dollars  a  year  for  the  next  ten  years 
for  city  foreign  evangelization,  and  this  would 
be  only  a  start  in  a  work  bound  to  extend 
indefinitely.  The  demand  is  imperative.  The 
fields  are  ripe  for  harvest.  We  have  seen 
that  the  old  religious  ties  are  not  only  weakened 
by  the  Atlantic  voyage,  but  often  broken  alto- 
gether. In  some  nationalities  this  tie  is  strong, 
in  most  of  them  not  very  binding.  The  great 
bulk  of  the  new  immigration  is  Roman  or  Greek 
Catholic.  Thousands  of  these  nominal  church 
members  drift  into  open  infidelity  or  schools  of 
atheism,  or  else  into  nothingism.  Their  former 
Church  does  not  keep  them,  and  Protestantism 
does  not  get  them.  It  is  a  question  whether  their 
new  condition  is  better  or  worse,  religiously,  than 
it  was  in  the  old  country.  We  should  remove 
that  question  by  surrounding  them  with  such: 


288  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Kow  to  Use 
Wealth  for 
Country 


A  Work 
for  United 
Protestantisni 


Qiristian  influences  and  institutions  as  will  make 
it  impossible  for  them  to  escape  the  Americaniz- 
ing and  evangelizing  environment.  Why  should 
not  Christian  philanthropy,  for  instance,  build 
a  block  of  model  tenement-houses  in  the  Italian 
district,  and  give  the  income  from  rentals  as  a 
permanent  endowment  for  Italian  mission  work? 
This  would  be  a  double  blessing. 

There  is  a  magnificent  opportunity,  an  oppor- 
tunity to  fire  the  heart  of  the  men  who  have 
means  to  carry  out  whatever  they  devise.  The 
evangelical  denominations  should  establish  in  the 
heart  of  the  East  Side,  where  are  gathered  a 
dozen  little  nationalities,  not  simply  one  great 
establishment  of  distinctively  religious  and  educa- 
tional character,  but  a  number  of  such  institu- 
tional churches,  costing  anywhere  from  a  million 
to  a  million  and  a  half  each,  and  sustained  in  a 
thoroughly  business-like  way.  Christianity  should 
permeate  the  entire  work.  We  ought  to  be 
working  for  to-day  and  for  the  future.  The 
Home  Mission  Boards  in  cooperation  should  be 
asked  to  lead  forward  in  this,  the  greatest  task 
of  the  twentieth  century.  There  is  nothing  senti- 
mental or  impracticable  about  these  suggestions. 

Here  is  a  work  that  demands  the  moral 
strength  of  Protestant  union.  Let  us  seek 
to  make  the  foreigners  Christian,  give  them 
the  Bible,  and  set  them  an  example  of  the 
brotherhood  of  believers.    Then  the  immigrants 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  289 


will  become  believers  and  join  the  brother- 
hood. 

In  addition  to  this  organized  work  done  what  the 
through  the  missionary  bodies,  there  is  a  large  crn'oo*"^ 
work  for  local  churches  to  do.  In  some  denomi- 
nations, which  report  little  organized  effort,  there 
is  much  mission  work  done  by  local  parishes. 
And  in  all  denominations  there  are  many 
churches  that  study  their  community  and 
apply  themselves  to  its  needs.  The  Chinese  Sun- 
day-school work  has  been  chiefly  done  by  the 
local  churches,  and  therefore  it  is  not  easy  to 
learn  the  extent  of  the  work,  since  reports  are  not 
made  to  central  boards.  This  form  of  service  is 
especially  desirable  when  it  draws  the  members 
of  the  churches  to  any  extent  into  personal  con- 
tact with  the  foreign  element,  and  it  should  be 
fostered. 


This  brings  us  to  the  heart  of  the  whole  matter  what  vou 
— the  personal  equation.  The  trouble  is  that  the  °° 
alien  and  the  American  do  not  know  each  other. 
Aversion  on  the  one  side  is  met  by  suspicion  on 
the  other.  Shut  away  from  intercourse,  the  alien 
becomes  more  alienated,  and  the  American  more 
opinionated,  with  results  that  may  easily  breed 
trouble.  The  antidote  for  prejudice  is  knowl- 
edge. Immigration  has  made  it  possible — and  in 
this  case  possibility  is  duty — for  the  consecrated 


V.    The  Individual  Duty 


290 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


Christian,  in  this  day  and  land  of  marvelous  op- 
portunity, to  be  a  missionary — not  by  proxy  but 
in  person. 

Be  a  Home      Here  is  the  foreigner  in  every  community. 

Missionary  you  meet  him  in  a  hundred  places  where 
the  personal  contact  is  possible.  Did  it  ever 
occur  to  you  that  you  could  do  something 
directly  for  the  evangelization  of  the  Greek  or 
Italian  fruit  vender  or  bootblack  or  laborer? 
Have  you  ever  felt  any  responsibility  for  the  sal- 
vation of  these  commonly  despised  foreigners? 
Have  you  laughed  at  them,  or  shown  your  con- 
tempt and  dislike  for  them  as  they  have  crowded 
the  public  places?  The  evangelization  of  the 
foreigners  in  America  must  be  effected  by  the 
direct  missionary  effort  of  the  masses  of 
American  Christians.  That  is  the  founda- 
tion truth.  The  work  cannot  be  delegated 
to  Home  Mission  Boards  or  any  other  agencies, 
no  matter  how  good  and  strong  In  their 
place. 

A  Personal  Hcncc,  let  all  cmphasis  be  put  here  upon 
Service  personal  responsibility  and  opportunity.  Be  a 
missionary  yourself.  Reach  and  teach  some 
one  of  these  newcomers,  and  you  will  do  your 
part.  Do  not  begin  with  talking  about  religion. 
Make  the  chance  to  get  acquainted ;  then 
after  you  have  shown  genuine  human  inter- 
est, and  won  confidence,  the  way  will  be  open  for 
the  gospel  that  has  already  been  felt  in  human 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  291 


helpfulness.  As  a  result  of  this  study,  which  has 
taught  you  to  discriminate  and  to  be  charitable 
to  all  peoples,  the  new  attitude  and  sympathy  will 
enable  you  to  approach  those  who  have  been 
brought  within  your  sphere  of  influence.  There 
is  a  field  of  magnificent  breadth  open  to  our 
young  people.  Once  engaged  in  this  personal 
service,  and  aware  of  its  blessed  effects,  there 
will  be  no  lack  of  a  missionary  zeal  that  will 
embrace  the  world-wide  kingdom. 

At  a  conference  in  New  York,  in  the  Home  a  shining 
Mission  study  class  a  young  colored  man  from  pe'g'^na' " 
the  West  Indies  gave  a  practical  illustration  of  Effort 
individual  missionary  effort  of  the  kind  that 
would  evangelize  the  foreigners,  if  it  were  gener- 
ally practiced.  He  said  that  every  Thursday, 
when  the  steamer  from  the  West  Indies  arrives, 
he  arranges  his  work  so  as  to  be  at  the  wharf, 
ready  to  welcome  immigrants,  especially  young 
people,  and  to  advise  them,  if  they  are  strangers 
without  settled  destination.  He  was  led  to  do 
this  by  his  own  experience.  For  three  years 
after  he  came  to  New  York,  he  went  from  church 
to  church  without  ever  receiving  a  word  of  wel- 
come or  invitation  to  come  again.  Finally  he 
found  a  church  home ;  but  the  homesickness  and 
loneliness  of  those  years  made  him  feel  that  so  far 
as  he  could  help  it,  no  one  else  from  the  West 
Indies  should  have  a  similar  experience.  So  he 
made  himself  free  to  speak  to  the  young  men,  and 


292  Aliens  or  Americans? 


A  Call  for 
Sacrifice 


The  Living 
Example 


always  invited  them  to  church.  He  had  been  the 
means  of  aiding  many  to  establish  themselves, 
and  had  saved  many  immigrants  from  being 
lured  away  into  evil.  He  said  the  place  to  get  the 
heart  of  the  foreigner  was  when  he  first  landed. 
It  was  a  simple  story,  told  without  any  false 
modesty.  Plainly  his  heart  was  in  the  work.  He 
wzs  a  home  missionary,  doing  a  definite  service 
of  importance,  and  setting  an  example  that  in- 
spired that  company.  They  could  not  help  the 
round  of  applause  that  followed  his  statement.  It 
was  spontaneous.  This  is  the  personal  touch 
that  must  be  put  in  some  way  upon  the  stranger 
that  is  within  our  gates.  If  the  alien  can  be 
brought  under  this  gracious  Christian  influence, 
the  chances  are  many  that  he  will  soon  cease  to 
be  alien  and  become  Christian.  Blessed  is  he  who 
makes  any  soul  welcome  to  country  and  church. 

A  call  to  home  mission  service  is  thus  pre- 
sented by  Dr.  Goodchild,  who  would  carry  reli- 
gion more  fully  into  the  settlement  idea :  "We 
need  for  the  solution  of  this  problem  that  young 
men  and  women  who  go  to  the  great  cities  from 
the  strong  churches  of  the  smaller  towns  and 
villages  should  identify  themselves  with  mission 
churches  rather  than  to  seek  ease  and  honor  in 
wealthy  churches  where  unused  talent  is  already 
congested. 

We  need  young  men  and  young  women 
to  go   down   among  these  people   and  live 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  293 


Christian  lives  in  the  midst  of  them.  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  one  should  take  his  children  there 
to  rear  them.  But  young  men  in  groups,  or 
young  women  in  groups,  or  young  couples  with- 
out children,  who  are  able  to  earn  their  own  liv- 
ing could  contribute  greatly  to  the  solution  of 
these  problems  if  they  would  live  among  these 
foreigners  and  help  in  the  process  of  digestion 
and  assimilation.  And  there  is  nothing  that  can 
do  that  work  so  quickly  and  effectually  as  for 
Christian  men  and  women  to  dwell  among  these 
people,  as  Christ  once  left  his  home  on  high  to 
dwell  among  the  sinful  ones  of  earth.  And  if 
there  are  young  men  and  young  women  who  are 
willing  to  give  themselves  wholly  to  work  for 
these  people,  and  will  live  among  them,  and  seek 
by  the  power  of  divine  grace  to  lift  them  up,  it 
surely  is  very  little  for  you  and  me  to  sustain 
them  while  they  toil." 

Wherever  earnest  effort  has  been  put  forth, 

.1  r    1  .11  Work  Grow* 

the  progress  of  the  work  has  been  most  encoura- 
ging. As  an  illustration  of  this,  when  Dr.  A.  F. 
Schauffler  some  twenty  years  ago  began  his 
pioneer  missionary  work  among  the  25,000 
Bohemians  of  Cleveland,  he  could  not  learn  of 
any  fellow-laborers  in  the  Slavic  field  except  a 
Bohemian  theological  student  in  New  York,  a 
Bohemian  Reformed  Church  pastor  in  Iowa,  and 
another  in  Texas.  But  in  1905  there  met  in  Chi- 
cago   an    Interdenominational    Conference  of 


294  Aliens  or  Americans? 


Slavic  missionaries  and  pastors,  and  that  gather- 
ing comprised  no  less  than  103  Slavic  workers, 
of  whom  sixty-four  were  pastors  and  preachers, 
fourteen  women  missionaries,  and  twenty-five 
missionary  students ;  while  the  conference  repre- 
sented forty-nine  churches  in  thirteen  states,  and 
five  evangelical  denominations.  Mr.  Ives  says 
truly:  "It  has  been  forever  established  that  for- 
eigners are  as  convertible  as  our  own  people,  that 
in  many  instances  their  faith  is  more  pure  and 
evangelical  than  the  American  type,  that  their 
lives  are  transformed  by  its  power  to  an  extent 
that  sometimes  puts  the  American  Christian  to 
shame,  that  their  children  are  easily  gathered 
into  Sunday-schools,  their  young  people  into 
Endeavor  Societies,  and  their  men  and  women 
into  prayer-meetings,  where  in  many  different 
tongues  they  yet  speak  and  pray  in  the  language 
of  Canaan.  The  immigration  problem  is  not  the 
same  menace  that  it  was.  A  mighty  solvent  has 
been  found." 

D^ffi'^'Itfes  There  is  no  escaping  the  fact  that  a  prodigious 
amount  of  difficult  lifting  must  be  done  in  order 
to  elevate  the  aliens  to  the  American  social  and 
religious  level.  But  the  very  vastness  of  the 
home  mission  task  is  inspiring  rather  than  dis- 
couraging to  heroic  souls.  As  someone  says, 
"The  American  loves  a  tough  job."  Difficulties 
will  not  hinder  him  a  moment  when  once  he  is 
moved  with  the  divine  impulse,  sees  the  thing 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  295 


to  be  done,  and  sets  himself  with  God's  help  to  do 
it.  Present  conditions  call  to  mind  that  passage 
in  "Alice  in  Wonderland,"  where  by  the  seashore 

The  walrus  and  the  carpenter  were  walking  hand  in 
hand, 

And  wept  like  anything  to  see  such  quantities  of  sand. 
"If  seven  maids  with  seven  mops,  swept  it  for  half  a 
year. 

Do  you  suppose,"  the  walrus  said,  "that  they  could  get 
it  clear?" 

"I  doubt  it,"  said  the  carpenter,  and  shed  a  bitter  tear. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  what  has  been  done,  ^  Hopeful, 

,  .  •  1       1        i  11  Hopeless, 

m  comparison  with  what  has  to  be  done,  would  Task 
not  be  unfairly  represented  by  the  seven  maids, 
and  that  some  people  think  the  conversion  of  the 
foreigner  as  hopeless  as  the  carpenter  did  the 
sand-sweeping  job.  But  seven  mops  are  better 
than  none,  and  the  pessimists  are  few.  Souls  are 
different  material  to  work  upon  from  sand.  By 
and  by  the  Christian  denominations  will  stop 
sweeping  around  the  edges  of  this  great  mission- 
ary enterprise,  and  take  hold  of  it  with  full 
force.  This  will  come  to  pass  when  the  real  con- 
ditions and  needs  and  perils  are  widely  known ; 
and  in  making  them  known  the  young  people 
have  their  opportunity  to  render  signal  service 
to  foreigner,  country.  Church,  and  Christ. 

VI.    Basal  Grounds  for  Optimism 
Now  that  we  have  completed  our  study  of  "^^^  outiook 
immigration,  necessarily  limited  by  time  and 


296  Aliens  or  Americans? 


space,  we  are  in  position  to  draw  some  conclu- 
sions with  regard  to  the  outlook.  Our  study 
shows  that  there  is  plenty  in  the  character  and 
extent  of  present  day  immigration  to  make  the 
Christian  and  patriot  thoughtful,  prayerful,  and 
purposeful.  On  the  surface  there  is  enough  that 
is  appalling  and  threatening  to  excuse  if  not  jus- 
tify the  use  of  the  word  "peril."  The  writer 
confesses  that  when  he  lived,  years  ago,  in  west- 
ern Pennsylvania,  and  came  close  to  the  inferior 
grades  of  immigrants,  and  witnessed  the  changes 
wrought  by  the  displacement  of  the  earlier  day 
mining  class,  he  bordered  for  a  time  on  the 
pessimistic  plane.  Nor  was  his  condition  much 
improved  during  residence  in  New  England, 
where  the  changing  of  the  old  order  and  the  pass- 
ing of  the  Puritan  are  of  vast  significance  to  our 
country.  But  closer  study  of  the  broad  subject 
has  led  to  a  positively  optimistic  view  concerning 
immigration,  and  some  of  the  grounds  of  this 
optimism  may  properly  close  this  chapter  and 
volume. 

Two  Great        fhe  basal  ground  is  the  universal  tendency 

Factors—  ,     ,  ,     ,  .  , 

Democracy  toward  democracy  and  the  universal  necessity 
and  Religion  for  religion.    These  are  sufficiently  axiomatic. 

The  appeal  to  the  history  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is  sufficient  to  establish  the  first,  and  the 
appeal  to  the  heart  of  humanity  will  establish  the 
second.  Democracy  is  the  dominant  spirit  in  the 
world's  life  to-day.  It  is  the  vital  air  of  America. 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  297 

Whatever  is  in  its  nature  inimical  to  democracy 
cannot  permanently  endure  on  this  continent,  and 
certainly  cannot  control,  whether  it  be  in  the 
sphere  of  ecclesiasticism  or  commercialism.  This, 
then,  is  the  sure  ground  for  optimism.  Religion 
is  a  necessity  in  a  nation.  What  shall  the  type  of 
religion  be  in  America  ?  The  answer  is  clear,  for 
Protestantism  is  democratic,  while  Romanism  is 
autocratic. 

The  hope  of  America's  evangelization  is  in-  influence  of 
creased  by  the  fact  that  the  pure  religion  of  Jesus  Environment 
Christ  is  so  essentially  democratic  in  its  funda- 
mental teachings  of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  of 
spiritual  liberty  and  unity.  The  immigrant 
comes  into  a  new  environment,  created  alike  by 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  cannot  escape  its 
influence.  Political  liberty  teaches  the  meaning 
of  soul  liberty,  and  leads  the  way  slowly  but 
surely  to  it.  A  man  cannot  come  into  rights 
of  one  kind  without  awakening  to  rights  of  every 
kind ;  and  once  awakened,  soon  he  insists  upon 
having  them  all  for  himself.  Freedom  is  infec- 
tious and  contagious,  and  the  disease  is  speedily 
caught  by  the  old-world  arrival,  who  breathes  in 
its  germs  almost  before  the  ship-motion  wears 
off.  The  peril  of  this  is  that  to  him  the  main  idea 
of  liberty  is  license.  The  true  meaning  of  the 
word  he  must  be  taught  by  the  Christian  mis- 
sionary, for  certainly  he  will  not  learn  it  from 
the  Church  to  which  he  commonly  belongs.  Here, 


298 


Aliens  or  Americans? 


then,  is  the  opportunity  for  the  pure  gospel  and 
for  the  Christian  missionary. 
The  Testing  Adding  the  natural  appeal  of  the  gospel  in  its 
simplicity  to  this  favoring  democratic  environ- 
ment, there  is  every  reason  for  optimism  con- 
cerning immigration,  if  only  American  Protes- 
tantism prove  true  to  its  opportunity  and  duty. 
"Ah,  but  that  is  a  tremendous  IF,"  said  a  widely 
known  Christian  worker  to  whom  this  statement 
was  made.  "I  agree  with  you  as  to  the  favoring 
conditions,  and  my  only  doubt  is  whether  our 
Christian  Churches  can  be  brought  to  see  their 
duty  and  do  it.  So  far  there  are  only  signs  of 
promise.  Our  home  mission  societies  are  doubt- 
less doing  all  they  can  with  the  slender  means  fur- 
nished by  the  contributing  churches,  but  they 
are  only  playing  at  the  evangelization  of  these  in- 
pouring  millions."  What  could  be  said  in  reply  ? 
One  could  not  deny  present  apathy  on  the  part 
of  Protestants  at  large,  whether  the  cause  be 
ignorance  or  indifference  or  want  of  missionary 
spirit.  One  could  but  declare  faith  in  the  pre- 
vailing power  of  Protestantism  when  the  crisis 
comes.  We  believe  the  day  is  not  distant  when 
American  Protestantism  will  present  a  united 
front  and  press  forward  irresistibly.  For  the 
hastening  of  this  day  let  us  pray  and  work. 
The  Task  of  Thus  the  problem  always  resolves  itself  to  this 
the  Ages  j^g^ .  American  Protestant 

Christianity  the  gigantic  task  of  the  ages — the 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  299 


home-foreign-mission  task — nothing  less  than 
the  assimilation  of  all  these  foreign  peoples  who 
find  a  home  on  this  continent  into  a  common 
Americanism  so  that  they  shall  form  a  composite 
American  nation — Christian,  united,  free,  and 
great.  What  could  be  more  glorious  than  to 
have  part  in  the  solution  of  this  problem?  To 
this  supreme  service,  young  men  and  women  of 
America,  you  are  called  of  God.  What  say  you : 
shall  it  be  Alien  or  American? 

QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  VIII 

Aim  :  To  Make  Hopeful  Beginnings  a  Strong  Incen- 
tive TO  Great  Expansion  of  Christian  Work  for 
Foreigners 

I.  Faults  on  Both  Sides. 

I.  What  issues  hang  upon  our  work  for  the  in- 
coming foreigners  ? 

2*  What  barriers  must  be  broken  down  in  order 
to  approach  them  successfully? 

3.  What  do  these  immigrants  (speaking  of  them 
m  general  terms)  possess,  and  what  do  they 
lack,  spiritually? 

4.  Is  there  a  lack  in  our  own  personal  attitude 

and  feelings  toward  them?    What  is  it? 

5.  *  If  you  had  come  as  an  average  immigrant, 

what  would  you  be  likely  to  think  of  "America" 
and  the  "Americans"? 

II.  Missionary  Beginnings. 

6.  When  and  where  is  it  most  easy  to  approach 
the  foreigner?  What  will  a  "lurking  preju- 
dice" do? 


300  Aliens  or  Americans? 

7.  What  Qiristian  workers  are  there  at  the  ports 
of  entry?  Give  instances  of  the  results  of  their 
labors. 

8.  Can  we  possibly  rest  content  with  what  is  now 
being  done  on  these  lines?    Why  not? 

9.  *  Should  all  denominations  unite  in  an  effort  to 

meet  the  situation?    Will  you  strive  for  it? 

10.  What  has  been  the  history  of  evangelical 
churches  down  town  in  New  York  City?  What 
centers  of  Christian  work  may  be  found  there? 
What  form  would  a  more  adequate  provision 
be  likely  to  take? 

11.  Among  what  classes  of  immigrants  has  the 
most  successful  Christian  work  been  done? 

12.  Among  what  classes  has  it  been  thus  far 
sporadic  and  experimental?  Give  instances  of 
successful  work  for  Italians. 

III.   Expansion  Needed  and  Possible. 

13.  *  Are  those  who  are  ordinarily  neglected  respon- 

sive to  the  right  sort  of  effort?  How  may 
there  be  sent  forth  "more  laborers  into  the 
harvest"  ? 

14.  When  and  how  may  the  scattered  forces  be 
joined  for  more  effective  work? 

15.  *  Shall  we  "dare  to  brave  the  perils  of  an  un- 

precedented advance"?!  Have  we  such  faith 
that  God  will  move  his  people  to  furnish  the 
funds  ? 

rV.    Local  and  Individual  Efforts. 

16.  Are  there  many  Sunday-schools  for  Chinese 
in  local  churches  ?  Why  not  as  many  for  other 
needy  races? 

'  Words  used  by  Dr.  A.  L.  Phillips,  of  Richmond.  Va..  at  the 
Asheviile  Cooference,  July,  1906. 


The  Home  Mission  Opportunity  301 


17.  *  How  can  every  Christian  be  a  Home  Mission- 

ary? Describe  some  example.  Compare  our 
Lord's  parable  of  the  leaven. 

18.  Will  the  "day  of  small  things"  lead  to  greater? 
On  what  conditions?   Give  instances. 

19.  *  Is  the  task  great  enough  to  challenge  our 

Christian  faith,  courage,  and  perseverance? 

V.    A  Hopeful  Outlook  for  the  Christian. 

20.  Is  there  any  reason  for  inactivity  and  despair? 
Why  not? 

21.  Will  Christian  democracy  help  to  solve  the 
problem  ? 

22.  Where  lies  the  element  of  uncertainty  and  how 
can  it  be  removed? 

23.  *  Will  you  deliberately  give  yourself  to  be  used 

of  God  in  helping  to  remove  it? 
"Immigration  Means  Obligation." 

References  for  Advanced  Study. — Chapter  VIII 

I.  Study  the  various  forms  of  work  undertaken  for 
foreigners  by  denominational  Home  Mission 
Boards. 

Tables  and  statements  in  the  appendixes  of  this 
book. 

Missionary  periodicals. 

Reports  and  papers  of  different  Societies. 

II.    Investigate  and  report  upon  efforts  made  in  your 
own  locality. 

III.  Frame  an  argument,  or  plea,  for  the  great  enlarge- 
ment of  all  Christian  activities  on  behalf  of  for- 
eigners. 

McLanahan :  Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech,  X, 
XI. 


APPENDIXES 


303 


Appendix  A 


305 


APPENDIX  A 

TABLE  I 

NoMBKB  or  Immigrants  Arrived  in  the  United  States  each  Year  from  1820 
TO  1905,  BOTH  inclusive' 


Period 


Number 


Period 


Number 


Year  ending  September  30 — 

1820  

1821  

1822  

1823  

1824  

1825  

1826  

1827  

1828  

1829  

1830  

1831  

Oct.  1.  1831,  to  Dec.  31,  1832 
Year  ending  December  31 — 

1833  

1834  

1835  

1836   

1837  

1838  

1839  

1840  

1841  

1842  

Jan.  1  to  Sept.  30,  1843  

Year  ending  September  30 — 

1844  

1845  

1846  

1847  

1848  

1849  

1850  

Oct.  1  to  Dec.  31,  1850  

Year  ending  December  31 — 

1851  

1852  

1853  

1854  

1855  

1856  ;;;; 

Jan.  1  to  June  30,  18S7  

Year  ending  June  30— 

1858  

1859  

1860  


8,385 

1861 

9,127 

1862 

6.911 

1863 

6,354 

1864 

7,912 

1865 

10.199 

1866 

10,837 

1867 

18,875 

1868 

27,382 

1869 

22,520 

1870 

23,322 

1871 

22,633 

1872 

60,482 

1873 

1874 

58,640 

1875 

65,365 

1876 

45,374 

1877 

76,242 

1878 

79,340 

1879 

38,914 

1880 

68.069 

1881 

84.006 

1882 

80,289 

1883 

104,565 

1884 

52,496 

1885 

1886 

78,615 

1887 

114,371 

1888 

154,416 

1889 

234,968 

1890 

226,527 

1891 

297,024 

1892 

310.004 

1893 

59,976 

1894 

1895 

379,466 

1896 

371,603 

1897 

368.643 

1898 

427.833 

1899 

200,877 

195.8.57 

^12,123 

191,942 

129,571 

133,143 

1906' 

Year  ending  June  30 — 


142,877 
72,183 
132,925 
191,114 
180,339 
332,577 
303,104 
282,189 
352,768 
387,203 
321,350 
404.806 
459,803 
313,339 
227,498 
169,986 
141,857 
138.469 
177,826 
457,257 
669,431 
788,992 
603,322 
518,592 
395,346 
334,203 
490,109 
546,889 
444,427 
455,302 
560,319 
579,663 
439,730 
285.631 
258,536 
343,267 
230,832 
229.299 
311,715 
448,572 
487,918 
648,743 
857,046 
812,870 
.026.499 
,100,735 


'From  Annual  Renort  of  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration  for  1905. 
•Statement  from  Commissioner-General  F.  P.  Sargent. 


3o6 


Appendix  A 


T.^LE  n 


RACE  SEX.  .VXD  AGE  OF  IMMIGR-AXTS  ADltTITED  Df  1905 


Under 

14  Uj 

45  yn. 

Race  or  people 

Male 

Female 

Total 

14 

44 

afid 

years 

jears 

ever 

African  (bkck)  

2.325 

1.273 

3.598 

433 

Z974 

191 

1.339 

539 

1.878 

246 

1,529 

103 

Bohemian  and  Mora^'ian.  

6.662 

5.095 

11,757 

2.620 

8.442 

695 

Bulgarian.  Serrian.  and  Mon- 

tenegrin  

5.-562 

261 

5,S23 

97 

5.529 

197 

1.S83 

88 

1.971 

28 

1,666 

277 

30.253 

4.851 

35.101 

1.383 

32,470 

1.251 

Cuban.  

4.925 

2.334 

7.259 

1.346 

5,225 

688 

Dalmatian.  Bosnian,  and  Her- 

legovinian  

2.m 

150 

2.639 

62 

2,450 

127 

Dutch  and  Flemish  

5.693 

2.805 

a498 

t699 

6,085 

714 

137 

8 

145 

3 

122 

20 

FngliKh  

31.965 

18,900 

5a865 

6.956 

36,726 

7,183 

4 

1 

5 

4 

1 

11.907 

5.105 

17,012 

1.483 

15.047 

482 

6,705 

4.642 

1L347 

1,121 

8.825 

1.401 

49.647 

32.713 

82,360 

11.469 

64,441 

6,450 

Greek  

11,586 

558 

12.144 

446 

11.523 

175 

82,076 

47,834 

129.910 

28.553 

95.964 

5,393 

Irish  

24.610 

29.626 

54.266 

2. 580 

48.562 

3,124 

31.695 

8.235 

39.930 

3.509 

34.561 

1.800 

Italian  (south)„  

155.007 

31.383 

186.390 

16.915 

159.024 

10.451 

9.810 

uu 

11.021 

124 

10.588 

309 

4.506 

423 

4.929 

325 

4.5a< 

47 

13.842 

4.762 

18.604 

1.474 

16  875 

255 

34,242 

11,788 

46.030 

3.864 

39,926 

2.240 

U2 

75 

227 

29 

169 

29 

Pacific  Islander  

13 

4 

17 

1 

15 

1 

Polish  

72.452 

29.9S5 

103.437 

9.867 

89.914 

2.656 

2.992 

1.S63 

4.855 

1,035 

3.3S1 

439 

7.244 

574 

7.818 

153 

7.293- 

372 

2.706 

1.046 

3.746 

591 

2,988 

167 

0,000 

001 

Scandinavian  (Norwegians. 

37.202 

25.082 

62.284 

6.597 

52.226 

3.461 

Scotch   

10,472 

5  672 

16.144 

2.270 

12.109 

1.765 

SoTak.  

3S.03S 

14.330 

52.368 

4.5S2 

4S,SS2 

1,904 

4.724 

866 

5.590 

403 

4,612 

575 

1.146 

512 

1.658 

223 

1,232 

203 

3  248 

1.574 

4.822 

742 

3.843 

237 

Turkish  

2,082 

63 

Z145 

45 

2.073 

27 

1,549 

982 

2.531 

464 

1726 

341 

West  Indian  (except  Oiban). 

892 

656 

1.548 

187 

1.209 

152 

2SS 

63 

351 

22 

311 

18 

Total  

724.914 

301.585 

1.026.499 

114.668 

85.5.419!  56.412 

Here  we  have  forty-four  races  or  nationalities  differentiated.  Surely  this  if  k 
medley  of  peoples  to  be  hannonjied.  Xotc  the  vast  proportion  of  working  age. 


Appendix  A 


307 


TABLE  III 


DEBARRED  IN  1905,  FOR  REASONS  GIVEN 


Race  or  People 


African  (black)  

Annenian  

Bohemian  and  Moravian   

Bulgarian,  Servian,  and  Montenegrin  . . . 

Chineee  

Croatian  and  Slovenian  

Cuban  •.• ;  •  ■ 

Dalmatian,  Bosnian,  and  Herzegovinian 

Dutch  and  Flemish  

East  Indian  

English  

Finnish  

French  

German  

Greek  

Hebrew  

Irish  

Italian  (north)  

Italian  (south)  

Japanese  

Korean  

Lithuanian  

Magyar  

Mexican  

Polish  

Portuguese  

Roumanian  

Russian  

Ruthenian  (Russniak)  

Scandinavian  (Norwegians,  Danes,  and 

Swedes)  

Scotch  

Slovak  

Spanish  

Spanish  American  

Syrian  

Turkish  

Welsh  

West  Indian  (except  Cuban)  

All  other  peoples  


Grand  total   38  92 


31 


107 
25 
38 

314 
9 

2G3 
22 
41 
51 
12 

328 
33 
94 

420 

193 

1,: 
1751 
169 
1,578 
238 
4 
48 
427 
7 

444 
30 

388 
66 
186 

152 
77 

275 
66 
13 

124 
46 
12 
20 

195 


50 
8 
19 
74 
88 
4 
3 
7 

"28 
46 
9 
100 
22 
353 
28 
41 
247 
285 
18 
92 
103 
8 
204 
7 
14 
27 
14 

43 
10 

66 
6 
4 
155 
9 
1 


2,198 


13 
5 
5 

62 
3 

32 
11 
13 
5 
1 
58 
4 

23 
60 
60 
33 
15 
42 
205 
13 


125 
1 

111 
1 

13 

14 
21 
47 
63 

1 
59 

5 
13 


3 
78 
104 
37 
2 
128 

"is 

41 
3 
144 
89 
48 
747 
70 
1,534 
243 
158 
1,290 
2 
1 

269 

363 
2 

991 
26 
47 
59 

115 

253 
75 

491 
23 
6 

200 
17 
8 
17 
74 


1,164 


7,776 


3o8 


1 


Appendix  B 


309 


APPENDIX  B 
Table  of  Acts  of  Congress  Concerning  Immigration 

1862.  Act  of  February  19,  prohibiting  building,  equip- 
ping, loading,  or  preparing  any  vessel  licensed, 
enrolled  or  registered  in  the  United  States  for 
procuring  coolies  from  any  Oriental  country  to 
be  held  for  service  or  labor. 

1875.  Act  of  March  3,  providing  that  any  person  con- 
tracting or  attempting  to  contract  to  supply  coolie 
labor  to  another  be  guilty  of  felony.  Excluding 
convicts,  and  women  imported  for  immoral  pur- 
poses, making  this  traffic  felony. 

1882.  General  Immigration  Act  of  August  3;  enlarg- 
ing excluded  list  and  establishing  head  tax. 

1885.  Contract  Labor  Act  of  February  26,  to  prevent 
importation  of  labor  under  the  padrone  or  other 
similar  system. 

1891.  Act  of  March  3,  which  codified  and  strengthened 
the  previous  statutes.  Excluded  classes  increased ; 
encouraging  of  contract  labor  to  emigrate  by  ad- 
vertisements forbidden ;  scope  of  Immigration 
Bureau  enlarged  by  establishing  office  of  Superin- 
intendent  of  Immigration  (now  Commissioner- 
General),  providing  for  return  of  debarred  aliens, 
and  making  decision  of  immigration  officers  as  to 
landing  or  debarment  final. 

1893.  Act  of  March  3;  requiring  manifests  and  their 
verification;  providing  boards  of  special  inquiry; 
and  compelling  steamship  companies  to  post  in 
the  offices  of  their  agents  copies  of  the  United 
States  immigration  laws,  and  to  call  the  attention 
of  purchasers  of  tickets  to  them. 


3IO  Appendix  B 


1894.  Act  of  August  18;  making  the  decision  of  the 
appropriate  immigration  officials  final  as  to  admis- 
sion of  aliens,  unless  reversed  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  on  appeal. 

1903.  Immigration  Restriction  Act  of  March  3.  (For 
its  main  provisions  see  p.  70  of  this  book,  foot- 
note 3.) 

The  Principal  Excluded  Classes 

(i)  Idiots;  (2)  insane  persons;  (3)  epileptics;  (4) 
prostitutes;  (5)  paupers;  (6)  persons  likely  to  become 
public  charge;  (7)  professional  beggars;  (8)  persons 
afflicted  with  a  loathsome  or  contagious  disease;  (9) 
persons  who  have  been  convicted  of  a  felony  or  other 
crime  or  misdemeanor  involving  moral  turpitude,  not 
including  those  convicted  of  purely  political  offences; 
(10)  polygamists;  (11)  anarchists  (or  persons  who 
believe  in  or  advocate  the  overthrow  by  force  or  violence 
of  the  government  of  the  United  States  or  of  all  govern- 
ment or  forms  of  laws,  or  the  assassination  of  public 
officials)  ;  (12)  those  deported  within  a  year  from  date 
of  application  for  admission  as  being  under  offers, 
solicitation,  promises  or  agreements  to  perform  labor 
or  service  of  some  kind  therein;  (13)  any  person  whose 
ticket  or  passage  is  paid  for  with  the  money  of  another, 
or  who  is  assisted  by  others  to  come,  unless  it  is  shown 
that  such  person  does  not  belong  to  one  of  the  excluded 
classes ;  but  any  person  in  the  United  States  may  send 
for  a  relative  or  friend  without  thereby  putting  the 
burden  of  this  proof  upon  the  immigrant. 

Crimes  Under  the  Act  of  1903 

In  order  to  enforce  these  provisions  twelve  violations 
were  made  crimes,  with  penalties  of  both  fine  and  im- 
prisonment: (i)  Importing  any  person  for  immoral 
purposes;  (2)  prepaying  the  transportation  or  encoura- 


Appendix  B  311 


ging  the  migration  of  aliens  under  any  oflfer,  solicitation, 
promise  or  agreement,  parol  or  special,  expressed  or 
implied,  made  previous  to  the  importation  of  aliens,  to 
perform  labor  in  the  United  States;  (3)  encouraging 
the  migration  of  aliens  by  promise  of  employment 
through  advertisements  in  foreign  countries ;  (4)  en- 
couraging immigration  on  the  part  of  owners  of  vessels 
and  transportation  companies  by  any  means  other  than 
communications  giving  the  sailing  of  vessels  and  terms 
of  transportation;  (5)  bringing  in  or  attempting  to 
bring  in  any  alien  not  duly  admitted  by  an  immigrant 
inspector  or  not  lawfully  entitled  to  enter  the  United 
States;  (6)  bringing  in  by  any  person  other  than  rail- 
way lines  of  any  person  afflicted  with  a  loathsome  or 
dangerous  contagious  disease;  (7)  allowing  an  alien  to 
land  from  a  vessel  at  any  other  time  and  place  than  that 
designated  by  the  immigration  officer;  (8)  refusing  or 
neglecting  to  return  rejected  aliens  to  the  port  from 
which  they  came  or  to  pay  their  maintenance  while  on 
land;  (9)  refusing  or  neglecting  to  return  aliens 
arrested  within  three  years  after  entry  as  being  unlaw- 
fully in  the  United  States;  (10)  knowingly  or  willfully 
giving  false  testimony  or  swearing  to  any  false  state- 
ment affecting  the  right  of  an  alien  to  land  is  made  per- 
jury; (11)  assisting  any  anarchist  to  enter  the  United 
States,  or  conspiring  to  allow,  procure  or  permit  any 
such  person  to  enter;  (12)  failing  to  deliver  manifests. 

Laws  to  Protect  the  Immigrant 

Act  of  1819,  providing  that  a  vessel  should  not  carry 
more  than  two  passengers  for  every  five  tons,  and  that 
a  specified  quantity  of  certain  provisions  should  be 
carried  for  every  passenger;  requiring  the  master  to 
deliver  sworn  manifests  showing  age,  sex,  occupation, 
nativity,  and  destination  of  passengers. 

Act  of  185s,  limited  number  to  one  for  every  two  tons, 


312 


Appendix  B 


and  provided  that  each  passenger  on  main  and  poop 
decks  should  have  sixteen  feet  of  floor  space,  and  on 
lower  decks  eighteen  feet. 

Act  of  1882,  providing  that  in  a  steamship  the  unob- 
structed spaces  shall  be  sufficient  to  allow  one  hundred 
cubic  feet  per  passenger  on  main  and  next  deck,  and 
120  on  second  deck  below  main  deck,  and  forbidding 
carrj'ing  of  passengers  orL  any  other  decks,  or  in  any 
space  having  vertical  height  less  than  six  feet;  other 
provisions  regulate  the  occupancy  of  berths,  light  and 
air,  ventilation,  toilet  rooms,  food,  and  hospital  facili- 
ties. Explosives  and  other  dangerous  articles  are  not 
to  be  carried,  nor  animals  with  or  below  passengers. 
Lists  of  passengers  are  to  be  delivered  to  the  boarding 
officer  of  customs. 

Act  of  1884,  provision  that  no  keeper  of  a  sailors* 
boarding  house  or  hotel,  and  no  runner  or  person  inter- 
ested in  one,  could  board  an  incoming  vessel  until  after 
it  reached  its  dock.  This  to  protect  aliens  from  imposi- 
tion and  knavery. 

Legislation  Recommended  in  1905  by  the  Commis- 
sioner-General OF  Immigration 
I.  In  regard  to  diseased  aliens :  that  competent  med- 
ical officers  be  located  at  the  principal  ports  of  embarka- 
tion; that  all  aliens  seeking  passage  secure  as  a 
prerequisite  from  such  officer  a  certificate  of  good 
health,  mental  and  physical;  and  that  the  bringing 
of  any  alien  unprovided  with  such  certificate  shall  sub- 
ject the  vessel  by  which  he  is  brought  to  summary  fine. 
2.  That  the  penalty  of  $100  now  prescribed  for  carrying 
diseased  persons  be  increased  to  $500,  as  a  means  of 
making  the  transportation  lines  more  careful.  3.  Such 
further  legislation  as  will  enable  the  government  to 
punish  those  who  induce  aliens  to  come  to  this  country 
under  promise  or  assurance  of  employment.   Less  exact- 


Appendix  B 


313 


ing  rules  of  evidence  and  a  summary  mode  of  trial  are 
needed  to  make  the  law  effective.  4.  That  Congress 
provide  means  for  distributing  arriving  aliens  who  now 
congregate  in  the  large  cities.  5.  That  as  a  means  of 
those  incapable  of  self-support  through  age  or  feeble- 
ness; those  who  have  not  brought  sufficient  money  to 
maintain  them  for  a  reasonable  time  in  event  of  sick- 
ness or  lack  of  employment.  6.  That  adequate  means  be 
adopted,  enforced  by  sufficient  penalties,  to  compel 
steamship  companies  to  observe  in  good  faith  the  law 
which  forbids  them  to  encourage  or  solicit  immigration. 
If  other  means  fail,  a  limitation  apportioning  the  num- 
ber of  passengers  in  direct  ratio  to  tonnage  is  suggested. 
7.  That  masters  of  vessels  be  required  to  furnish  mani- 
fests of  outgoing  aliens,  similar  to  those  of  arriving 
aliens,  so  that  the  net  annual  increase  of  alien  population 
may  be  ascertained. 

In  addition  two  special  recommendations  are  made, 
with  view  to  control  immigration  and  lessen  the  hard- 
ships of  the  debarred:  (i)  To  enlighten  aliens  as  to  the 
provisions  of  our  laws,  so  that  they  may  not  in  ignor- 
ance sever  their  home  ties  and  sacrifice  their  small 
possessions  in  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  enter  the  United 
States.  To  this  end  the  laws  and  regulations  should 
be  translated  into  the  various  tongues  and  distributed 
widely.  This  might  not  prevail  as  against  the  influence 
and  promises  of  transportation  agents,  but  it  would 
relieve  this  country  of  responsibility  for  needless  dis- 
tress and  suffering.  (2)  An  international  conference  of 
immigration  experts. 


314 


Appendix  C 


APPENDIX  C 

Work  of  Leading  Denominations  for  the  Foreign 

Population 

The  following  facts  and  figures,  received  from  the 
leading  Home  Mission  Boards,  give  some  idea  of  the 
work  which  is  now  being  done  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  foreign  peoples  in  the  United  States.  We  should 
be  glad  if  the  reports  were  more  complete.  They  do 
not  represent  all  of  the  work  that  is  being  done,  because 
a  considerable  part  of  this  work  is  carried  on  by  the 
local  churches  in  all  of  the  denominafions,  and  this 
work  is  seldom  reported  and  does  not  enter  into  the 
statistics  of  the  Home  Mission  Boards. 

It  is  hoped  that  each  Board  will  provide  a  supple- 
mentary chapter,  setting  forth  in  detail  its  work  among 
the  foreign  population — a  work  abounding  in  incident 
and  hopefulness.  There  is  no  more  encouraging  home 
mission  work,  and  wherever  earnest  effort  has  been 
made,  the  response  has  been  most  gratifying.  Write  to 
your  Home  Mission  Board  for  full  information.  Where 
a  special  chapter  is  not  furnished  for  a  supplemental 
study,  the  Boards  will  send  the  information  and  litera- 
ture that  will  enable  the  leader  of  the  study  class  to 
show  what  is  being  done,  with  a  detail  impossible  in  the 
general  treatment  of  the  subject. 

It  is  significant,  in  this  connection,  that  all  the  Boards 
are  calling  especial  attention  to  the  needs  of  this  work 
among  the  foreign  peoples  and  urging  large  advance 
in  plans  for  evangelization 


I 


Appendix  C 


315 


MISSION  WORK  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  IN  1906 
AMONG  THE  FOREIGN  POPULATION 


Nationality 


Welsh   4 

Swedish   135 

Norwegian  and  Danish ...  85 

German   265 

French   8 

Chmese   11 

Japanese   30 


-Q      2  S  cj     J2  as 

sag  Ejgssis 

•g-Si  Nationantj  ;f| 

E    .5  ^  £ 

S 

185  Bohemian  and  Hungarian.  11 

12,076   Italian   18 

4.236   Portuguese   3 

19,184   Finnish   9 

350   Foreign  Populations   3   

298   

1,666        Total   582  39.557 


1,666 
1,014 
86 
93 


Including  the  charges  not  now  receiving  missionary 
aid,  the  total  number  of  missions,  or  charges,  among 
the  foreign  peoples  was  971,  not  including  Spanish 
work,  and  the  total  membership,  including  probationers, 
was  92,082  in  1906.  The  work  is  extended  all  over 
the  country. 

The  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  supports 
Immigrant  Homes  in  New  York  City,  and  in  Boston, 
Mass.,  in  which  immigrants  may  find  protection  and 
counsel  as  well  as  a  safe  lodging.  In  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
work  is  also  done  for  incoming  strangers,  and  lodgings 
provided  in  case  of  need.  Missionaries  are  stationed 
at  each  of  these  points.  Much  work  is  done  for  foreign- 
ers by  this  Society  through  its  three  large  city  missions, 
and  its  numerous  Deaconess  Homes. 


3i6 


Appendix  C 


MISSION  WORK  OF  THE  PRBSBYTERIAN  HOME  MISSION  BOARD  IN 
1906  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN  POPULATION 


Nationality 


Armenian  

Bohemian   30 

Chinese   10 

Danes  and  Norwegians ...  1 

Dutch   12 

French   9 

German   156 

Hungarian  (Magyar)   15 


No.  of 
Churches  Mem- 

and  ber- 
Stations  ship. 
3  183 


Nationality 


Italian   32 

Japanese    3 

Korean   1 

Russian   1 

Slavic   8 

Syrian   2 

Welsh   7 


No.  of 
Churches  M em- 
ail d  ber- 
Stations  ship 


1,529 

438 

101 
1,365 

508 
13,446 
1,035 

•   Total   290  20,415 


955 
50 
40 

337 
15 
414 


Total  236  18,605 

The  Annual  Report  for  1906  says:  In  addition  to  the 
above  it  is  doubtless  true  that  there  are  many  churches, 
and  even  individuals,  carrying  on  religious  work  among 
foreigners  which  has  not  been  reported  to  the  Board. 
Two  facts  warrant  special  attention.  One  is  that  the 
proper  carrying  on  of  the  work  of  giving  the  gospel 
to  these  foreign-speaking  peoples  necessarily  includes 
and  is  closely  allied  with  other  needs — such  as  schools; 
literature  in  their  own  tongue,  including  tracts,  papers, 
and  the  Bible ;  colporteur  visitation ;  Bible  reading,  and 
so  forth.  It  is  not  sufficient  simply  to  open  a  church 
or  hall  where  a  meeting  can  be  held  and  expect  the 
people  to  come.  A  great  deal  of  preparatory  work  must 
be  done. 

MISSION  WORK  OF  THE  AMERIC.'LN  BAPTIST  HOME  MISSION  SOaETY 
IN  1906,  .\MONG  THE  FOREIGN  POPULATION 


Nationality 


Bohemians  - .... 

Chinese  

Danes  

Finns  

French  Canadian 
Germans   148 


No. 
jf 

Field 
6 
12 
20 
13 
29 


Hungarians. 
Italians  . . 
Japanese. . 
Jews  


3 

25 
2 
2 

260 


Members 
of  Mission 
Fields 
196 
209 
484 
175 
650 
5,196 
42 
391 
68 


7,411 


Nationality 

No. 
of 
Fields 

Lettish   2 

Mexicans  in  U.  S  18 

Norwegians   50 

Poles   6 

Portuguese   2 

Russians   2 

Slavs   5 

Swedes   205 

S>TianB   1 


551 


Member! 

of  Mission 
Fields 
31 
113 
1.095 
82 
42 
71 
77 
7.623 


16.545 


Appendix  C  317 


FOREIGN  PEOPLES  IN  BAPTIST  CHURCHES,  THE  RESULTS  OF  HOME 
MISSION  WORK 

Churches  Memb'ahip 

Germans.  1906   266  26.274 

Dane-Norwegian.  1903   90  5.530 

Swedes.  1903   331  22.625 

The  number  of  missionaries  among  the  foreign  popu- 
latfons  was  312.  The  Women's  Societies  maintained  a 
number  of  workers,  including  the  efficient  missionaries 
at  Ellis  Island.  The  Home  Mission  Society  is  support- 
ing Italian  missionaries  in  twenty  cities.  Aside  from 
organized  effort,  Chinese  Sunday-schools  are  conducted 
by  many  local  churches,  which  do  not  report  to  any 
central  organization.  There  is  a  considerable  work 
done  also  by  the  city  mission  societies,  which  work 
independently  in  part.  In  some  places,  local  churches 
also  maintain  missions  among  the  Italians,  Hungarians, 
and  Slavs. 


MISSION  WORK  OF  THE  CONGREGATIONAL  HOME  MISSIONARY 
SOaETY  IN  1906 


Total  number  of  Hissiouaries. 

215 

  10 

73 

Finnish  "   

  6 

Scandinavian  Missions  

89 

2 

Bohemiaa  "   

..  20 

  6 

Polish  -   

5 

Greek.  "   

  1 

..  7 

  22 

STATEMENTS  SHOWING  NUMBER  OF  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCHES 
FOR  FOREIGN  SPEAKING  PEOPLES,  WITH  THEIR 
TOTAL  MEMBERSHIP 

Churches         Members  Average  to  a  Church 

Germans                                  170  8,000  47 

Scandinavians                             95  7,495  79 

SUvs                                        12  636  58 

All  other  Nationalities,  (including 
Italians,  French,  Greek,  Arme- 
nian, Chinese,  Welsh,  etc            102  8,222  78 

379  24.353  262 


3i8 


Appendix  C 


Work  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  Among 
THE  Foreign  Population 

The  Domestic  Section  of  the  Domestic  and  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  carries  on  work  to  a  Hmited  extent 
among  the  Swedes.  There  is  a  general  missionary  in 
the  East,  who  has  charge  of  this  work  in  the  three 
dioceses  of  Rhode  Island,  New  York,  and  Massachu- 
setts, and  one  in  the  northwest.  In  the  eastern  dioceses 
named  there  were  in  1906  fifteen  Swedish  missions  and 
parishes,  with  1,897  communicants,  ministered  to  by 
five  clergymen.  The  western  general  missionary  visited 
Sweden  during  the  past  year  for  the  purpose  of  finding 
suitable  university  students  for  the  ministry  in  this 
country.  There  are  missions  in  Duluth  and  at  other 
points.  The  Annual  Report  says :  "Of  all  the  work 
under  the  care  of  the  general  missionary,  none  is  more 
important  than  the  mission  to  Scandinavian  immigrants 
arriving  at  Ellis  Island,  New  York,  for  it  acts  as  a 
special  feeder  to  the  church.  The  Scandinarian  immi- 
grants outnumber  those  from  any  other  Protestant 
country." 

What  further  work  is  done  for  the  foreign  peoples 
is  carried  on  by  the  local  parishes,  such  as  Grace 
Church,  Trinity,  Saint  George's,  and  Saint  Bartholo- 
mew's in  New  York,  which  work  among  the  Italians 
and  other  nationalities,  and  equip  their  missions  in  a 
manner  worthy  of  imitation. 

Lutheran  Work  in  the  United  States 

Large  numbers  of  the  immigrants  are  Lutherans. 
The  resources  of  the  Lutheran  church  in  America  to 
care  for  her  people  are  thus  stated  by  the  Rev.  J.  N. 
Lenker,  D.D.,  in  the  Lutheran  World,  the  church  organ: 


Appendix  C 


319 


For  the  Germans,  5,000  pastors,  8,000  churches,  and 
1,200,000  communicant  members. 

For  the  Scandinavians,  1,800  pastors,  14,300  churches, 
and  500,000  communicant  members. 

For  the  Finns,  three  synods,  58  pastors,  187  churches, 
and  22,149  communicant  members. 

For  the  Slovaks,  about  200  organizations  with  a  grow- 
ing number  of  pastors  and  a  very  loyal  constituency. 

For  the  Letts  and  Esthonians,  21  organized  congre- 
gations and  preaching  stations,  divided  into  the  eastern 
and  western  districts. 

For  the  Icelanders,  one  synod,  10  pastors,  37  or- 
ganized congregations,  3,785  communicant  members. 

For  the  Poles,  Bohemians,  and  Magyars,  work  is  done 
by  the  various  German  synods,  the  late  statistics  of 
which  are  not  at  hand.  Besides  congregations  in  these 
languages,  many  understand  German  and  are  served 
by  German  pastors. 

The  whole  Lutheran  Church  of  America,  including 
the  Swedish  Mission  Friends  with  33,000  members  and 
the  German  Evangelical  Synod  with  222,000  members, 
the  constituents  of  which  are  nearly  all  Lutherans, 
making  in  all  8,956  pastors,  15,135  churches,  and  2,123,- 
639  communicant  members  are  the  results  of  immigrant 
mission  work  or  mission  work  in  foreign  languages  or 
languages  other  than  English. 

ANALYSIS  OF  THE  IMMIGRATION  FOR  1905.  WITH  REGARD  TO  REU- 
GIOUS  AFFILIATIONS  AND  EASE  OF  ASSISIILATION  i 
First  class  and  the  easiest  to  assimilate  are 


English   50,865  Reformed 

Scotch   16,144  Reformed 

Germans   82,360  Luth.  and  Cath. 

Scandinavians   62,284  Lutheran 

Iriah   54,266  Catholic. 

Finns   17,012  Lutheran 

Letts,  etal   18,604  Lutheran 

Slovaks   52,368  Lutheran 


Total   353,903 


'From  the  Lutheran  World. 


320 


Appendix  C 


Second  chas  and  the  second  easiest  to  assimilate : 


Magyars   46,030  Rcf.  and  Cath. 

Bohemians,  etc   11,7.57  Ref.  and  Cath. 

French   11.021  Ref  and  Cath. 

Ruthenians   14,473  Catholic 


Total   83,281 

Third  data  and  the  most  difficult  to  evangelize  and  Americanize  and  the  clata 
that  makes  the  new  problem  difScult: 

Poles   102,137  Catholic 

Italians   226,320  Catholic 

Hebrews   129,910  Israelites 


Total. 


458,307 


Appendix  D  321 


APPENDIX  D 
Bibliography 

Bernheimer,  Charles  S.,  Editor.  The  Russian  Jew  in 
the  United  States.  B.  F.  Buck  &  Co.,  New  York 
$1.50.  Written  mostly  by  Jews ;  replete  with  facts 
gathered  in  the  various  centers — New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Chicago,  Boston.  Should  be  read 
by  those  who  would  understand  this  remarkable 
people. 

Brandenburg,  Broughton.  Imported  Americans.  F.  A. 
Stokes,  New  York.  $1.60.  Description  of  experi- 
ences while  making  personal  investigations  in 
New  York,  Italy,  and  the  steerage,  of  immigration 
problems. 

Crowell,  Katherine  R.  Coming  Americans.  Willett 
Press,  New  York.  Paper,  25  cents ;  Cloth,  35 
cents.  A  book  for  Juniors,  putting  in  attractive 
form  for  children  and  teachers  of  children  the 
leading  features  of  immigration. 

Gordon,  W.  Evans.  The  Alien  Immigrant.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  $1.50.  Describes 
the  Hebrews  in  European  countries,  with  chapter 
on  situation  in  the  United  States. 

Hall,  Prescott  F.  Immigration.  Henry  Holt  &  Co., 
New  York.  $1.50.  The  latest  volume  of  compre- 
hensive character,  taking  the  restrictive  position. 
The  author  is  secretary  of  the  Immigration  Re- 
striction League. 

Holt,  Hamilton.  Undistinguished  Americans.  James 
Pott  &  Co.,  New  York.  $1.50.  Biographical  and 
readable. 


322  Appendix  D 

Lord,  Eliot,  et  al.  The  Italian  in  America.  B.  F.  Buck 
&  Co.,  New  York.  $1.50.  Makes  an  exceedingly- 
favorable  showing  for  the  Italians;  somewhat 
one-sided  but  valuable. 

Mayo-Smith,  Richmond.  Emigration  and  Immigra- 
tion. Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York. 
$1.50.  An  exceedingly  valuable  and  scholarly 
work. 

McLanahan,  Samuel.  Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech. 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company,  New  York.  50 
cents,  net.  A  handbook  containing  many  valuable 
facts  in  compact  form. 

Riis,  Jacob.  How  the  Other  Half  Lives.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  $1.25,  net.  Descrip- 
tive of  the  conditions  in  which  the  foreign  popu- 
lation struggles  for  existence. 

Roberts,  Peter.  Anthracite  Coal  Communities.  The 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York.  $3.50.  A  study 
of  the  anthracite  regions  and  the  Slavs,  similar 
in  character  to  Dr.  Warne's  book. 

Sinclair,  Upton.  The  Jungle.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co., 
New  York.  $1.50.  A  work  based  on  personal 
investigation  and  living  among  the  Slavs  who 
labor  in  the  stockyards  in  Chicago;  vivid  narra- 
tive. This  book  discloses  the  treatment  of  the 
alien  that  makes  him  a  menace  to  America. 

Strong,  Josiah.  Our  Country.  Baker  &  Taylor  Com- 
pany, New  York.  60  cents.  The  points  made  in 
the  chapter  on  Immigration  are  as  pertinent 
now  as  when  the  book  was  issued  in  1881. 

Strong,  Josiah.  The  Twentieth  Century  City.  Baker 
&  Taylor  Company,  New  York.  Paper,  25  cents; 
Cloth,  50  cents.  Has  the  breadth  of  view  and 
effectiveness  which  belong  to  the  author. 


Appendix  D  323 


Warne,  F.  Julian.  The  Slav  Invasion.  J.  B.  Lippin- 
cott  Co.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  $1.00,  net.  Study 
at  first  hand  of  conditions  in  Pennsylvania  mining 
regions  and  the  Slav  population. 

Whelpley,  J.  D.  The  Problem  of  the  Immigrant. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  $4.20. 
Dealing  with  the  emigration  and  immigration 
laws  of  all  nations. 

Wood,  Robert  A.  Americans  in  Process.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  $1.50.  A  series 
of  papers  by  Robert  A.  Wood,  and  other  workers 
in  the  South  End  House  in  Boston,  Mass. 


INDEX 


326 


INDEX 


Abuses,  of  immigration 
privileges  and  laws,  42, 
43,  63-69,  78-84,  92,  93 

Adams,  Representative,  of 
Pennsylvania,  74,  97 

Admission,  see  immigrants 

Africans,  124 

Alabama,  113 

Albany,  New  York,  22 

Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey,  3 

Alien,  admission,  53-64 ;  ad- 
vance in  numbers  and 
distribution,  15-50,  102- 
117;  characterized,  236, 
237,  258;  ideas  imported, 
241 ;  loss  of  religious 
faith,  271 ;  opinion  of 
America,  272 ;  protection, 
65-68;  restriction,  68-84 

Aliens,  classes  excluded, 
77,  78 ;  total  since  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  28 

America,  duty  to  guard  its 
own  genius,  232;  mission, 

10,  269;  must  be  kept 
Christian,  271 ;  unique 
mission  field,  269 

American,  Christians,  duty 
of,  10,  II,  44-47;  fair  play, 
73 ;  ideals  to  be  preserved, 

11,  46,  47,  91,  238,  239, 
262 ;  institutions,  232,  261 ; 
liberty,  117;  Protestant- 
ism, 16,  47,  254,  25s,  288; 
teacher    in    Syria,  39; 


Tract  Society,  50;  type  of 
nationality,  11,  45,  46,  92, 
238,  240 

Americanization  of  immi- 
grants, 10,  14,  46,  113,  126, 
176,  242 ;  children  pro- 
moting, 205,  223,  259,  260 

Anderson,  Herbert,  268 

Antwerp,  99 

Appeal,  right  of,  by  ex- 
cluded, 77,  78 

Ardan,  Ivan,  181,  182 

Armenians,  124 

Asia,  immigrants  from,  20, 
21,  113 

Assimilation  of  foreign 
peoples,  270,  271 ;  aid  to, 

293 

Assisted    immigration,  43, 

77,  93.  loi 
Associated     Charities  of 

Boston,  96 
Atchison.  Rena  M.,  194,  247 
Attila,  27 

Australians,  as  immigrants, 
22 

Austria,  81,  82 
Austria-Hungary,  92,  165 ; 

immigrants  from,  21,  25, 

72 

Baldwin,  Mrs.  S.  L.,  72,  73 
Baltimore,  53 
Barrows,  Dr.  S.  J.,  142 
Battery,  the,  S4,  62,  108 


327 


328 


Index 


Belgians,  as  immigrants,  21 
Belgium,  29 
Berlin,  199 

Betts,  Mrs.  Lillian  W.,  151, 

152,  204 
Bible,  34,  167,  174,  283,  288 
"Birds  of  passage,"  71,  135 
Blackwell's  Island,  139 
Board  of  Special  Inquiry,  62 
Bohemians,  as  immigrants, 
21,  165-170;  city  centers, 
166;  freethinking  tenden- 
cies, 168,   169;  Protestant 
in    spirit,    165-168;  reli- 
gious work  among,  285 
Booth,  General  William,  194 
Bosnians,  183 

Boston,  24,  53,  83,  198 ;  Ital- 
ian Society,  iii 

Boyesen,  Professor,  28,  89, 
90,  234 

Brandenburg,  Broughton, 

41,  65-68,  82,  97,  98,  101 
Bremen,  82,  99 
Brooklyn,  148 
Brooks,  Phillips,  232 
Bryce,  James,  200 
Buffalo,  172 

Bulgarians,  as  immigrants, 
21,  183 

Bureau  of  Information,  no 
Burlington,  Iowa,  20 

Calvin,  172 

Cambridge,  Massachusetts, 
24 

Canada,  27;  mgress  from, 

53,  77,  92 
Canadians,   as  immigrants, 

21 

Carr,  Mr.  138 
Carroll,  Dr.  H.  K.,  174 
Castle  Garden,  28 
Celtic  peoples,  123 
Chandler,  ex-Senator,  214 


Chattanooga,  Immigration 

Bureau  in,  113 
Chicago,   36,   166-172,  176, 

187,  198 
Childhood,  the  blighting  of, 

225,  226 
Children,  condition  of,  in 

great    cities,    221,  222; 

number  of,  at  work,  224, 

226 

Chinese,  as  immigrants,  21, 
40,  72,  73 ;  converts,  73, 
89,  269 ;  exclusion  act,  70, 
73 ;  Sunday-schools  for, 
289 

Chivers,  Dr.  E.  E.,  267 

Chopin,  172 

Christ,  44,  277 

Christian  attitude  toward 
immigrants,  44-47,  270; 
cooperation  and  federa- 
tion, 286;  optimism,  8, 
117,  262 

Christianity,  converts  to, 
73 ;  its  first  impression 
for  newcomers,  277,  278 

Churches,  duty  and  oppor- 
tunity of,  270,  282,  286; 
abandoning  lower  New 
York,  278;  must  be  mis- 
sionary, 270 ;  saving 
themselves  through  sav- 
ing immigrants,  285 ; 
work  for  foreigners,  289 

Cincinnati,  23 

Citizenship,  how  degraded, 
214 

City,  the,  bad  government 
of,  200;  conditions  of  ten- 
ement-house life  in,  201, 
210;  demoralizing  influ- 
ences, 209,  214;  environ- 
ment offered  immigrants, 
196,  201-206;  foreigniza- 
tion  of,  198,  199,  217;  iso- 


Index 


329 


lation  of  foreigners  in, 
205 ;  nerve  and  storm 
center,  193 ;  overcrowd- 
ing, 203,  206;  political 
evils,  214 
City  College,  many  Jewish 

pupils  in,  189 
Civil  War,  effect  on  immi- 
gration, 26,  31 
Claghorn,  Kate  H.,  97,  259 
Cleveland,    Ohio,    24,  166, 

169,  172 
Cleveland,  President,  96 
Colonies,  foreign,  in  Amer- 
ica, 196,  198,  200,  217 
Colonists  distinguished  from 

immigrants,  45,  46 
Columbia  University,  13 
Columbus,  Christopher,  188 
Commissioner-General  of 
Immigration,    25,  76-78, 
83,  92,  93 ;  of  the  Port,  77 
Coney  Island,  150 
Congestion  of  foreign  ele- 
ments in  cities,  195 
Congress,  acts  of,  70 
Connecticut,  173,  174,  180 
Consumption,  statistics  of, 
220 ;      foreign  element 
largely  its  victims,  220 
Contract    labor  exclusion, 
77,  82,  92;  violation,  82, 
83 

Convicts,  excluded,  77 

Cook,  Joseph,  52 

Coolies,  Chinese,  excluded. 

Cooperation,  interdenomi- 
national, 286 ;  of  Home 
Mission  Boards,  288 

Copernicus,  172 

Crime,  conditions  favorable 
to  increase  of,  209,  224 ; 
foreigners  led  into  by  en- 


vironment and  example, 
209 

Croatians,  124,  183 
Czechs,  see  Bohemians 

Dalmatians,  as  immigrants, 
183 

Danes,  as  immigrants,  21 
Debarred,  see  Excluded 
Democracy,     influence  of 

upon  aliens,  296,  298 
Denmark,  immigrants  from, 

23 

Detroit,  21,  172 

Discrimination  needed  as  to 
immigrants,  127 

Diseases  guarded  against, 
57,  59,  60,  74,  77,  78,  93 

Distribution  of  immigrants, 
102-117;  New  York  state, 
105,  107;  New  Zealand 
methods,  116;  North  At- 
lantic section,  105 ;  Ohio, 
107 ;  Pennsylvania,  105, 
107;  railroads  assisting, 
116;  societies  aiding,  107- 
113;  South  Central  states, 
105  ;  West  Virginia,  107  ; 
Western  section,  105 

Dublin,  199 

Dutch,  as  immigrants,  21 

Eastern  invasion,  the,  157- 
192 

Edison,  Thomas  A.,  247 
Educational  policy  affected 

by  immigration,  246 
Ellis  Island,  18,  19,  35,  37, 
54.  55,  59-62,  74,  83,  99, 
100,      108;  missionary 
workers  at,  274 ;  results 
of  personal  efforts  at,  275 
Emerson,  Ralph  W.,  247 
English,  as  immigrants,  19, 
21,  126;  language,  influ- 


330 


Index 


ence  of,  259,  260 

Environment,  evil  effects  of 
upon  children,  243 

Europe,  American  ideas 
working  in,  33,  34;  immi- 
grants from,  20,  23,  98, 
123-192 

Evangelization  of  immi- 
grants, 10,  16,  46,  47 ;  ac- 
cessibility, 294;  illustra- 
tion of,  283 ;  most  potent 
factor  in  Americanizing, 
270;  need  for  extension 
of,  277;  personal  respon- 
sibility for,  290;  sporadic, 
not  systematic,  281 

Evasion  of  immigration 
laws,  78-83 

Excluded  classes,  74-78, 
100,  lai 


Federation  of  Jewish  Chari- 
ties, 102 

Financial  panics,  effect  on 
immigration,  26,  31 

Finns,  as  immigrants,  21 

Fiume,  82,  99 

Forbes,  James,  139 

Foreign-born,  distribution 
of,  107 

Four     State  Immigration 

League,  113 
France,  34 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  69 
Freethinkers,  their  societies 

among  immigrants,  168, 

169,  180,  285 
French-American  College, 

the,  280 
French,  as  immigrants,  21 
French-Canadians,  Roman 

Catholic    convention  of, 

257 

Fung  Yuet  Mow,  269 


Gardner,  Representative,  of 

Massachusetts,  95 
Genoa,  99,  132 
Germans,    as  immigrants, 

19,  21,  35,  126 
Germany,  immigrants  from, 

25.  33.  81 
Goodchild,  Rev.  F.  M.,  33, 

292 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  247 
Great   Britain,  immigrants 

from,  25,  43,  128 
Greece,  92 

Greek  Catholic  Church,  182, 
184;  Orthodox  or  Rus- 
sian State  Church,  182 

Greeks,  as  immigrants,  21, 
37,  41 


Hall,  Prescott  F.,  45,  70, 
129 

Hamburg,  82,  99 
Havre,  99 

Hebrew,  see  Jewish,  Jews 

Herzegovinians,  as  immi- 
grants, 183 

Hewes,  F.  W.,  107 

Home  Missions,  at  Ellis  Is- 
land. 274;  demand  for 
extension  of  in  New 
York,  287 ;  opportunities 
of,  for  local  churches, 
279;  personal  work,  274, 
290,  291 ;  results  of 
abroad,  269 ;  settlement 
influences  by  residence, 
292,  293 

Honolulu,  53 

Huguenot  colonial  stock, 
240 

Hungarians,  as  immigrants, 
33,  128,  177-179;  cafes,  as 
social  centers,  178,  179; 
fair  degree  of  education, 


Index 


331 


177;    open    to  mission 

work,  178 
Hungary,  19,  128 
Huns,  27,  165 
Hunter,  Robert,  194,  200 
Huss,  John,  166,  170 

Iberic  peoples,  123 
Idiots,  excluded,  77,  78 
Illiteracy,  amount  of  among 
immigrants,  22,  24,  125; 
test  proposed,  95,  96 
Immigrants,  admission,  53- 
64;  "assisted,"  43,  93; 
approachable,  273,  282 ;  at- 
tracted to  the  city,  195 ; 
debarred,  70,  71,  77,  78; 
diseased,  57,  60,  74,  77,  78, 
93,  94;  illiteracy  among, 
22,  23,  see  also  Illiteracy; 
"manifest,"  55,  56,  61 ; 
nationality,  21,  22;  "natu- 
ral," 31-42;  ports  and 
routes  of  entry,  53,  77 ; 
"solicited,"  42,  43,  80-82, 
93;  smuggling  of,  8i,  92; 
religious  census  and  con- 
ditions, 251,  271 ;  value  of 
first  impression  upon, 
273;  views  of  America, 
272 ;  women  among,  18, 
61,  76 

Immigration,  annual  vol- 
ume, 17-22;  Bureau  of,  76, 
77,  92,  104 ;  causes  of,  29- 
31;  Christian  view  of,  8; 
classes,  31-43;  Conference 
of  1905,  90,  91 ;  divine 
mission  in,  270;  economic 
fallacies  of,  245 ;  effect 
upon  educational  policy, 
246 ;  inspectors  and  offi- 
cers, 59-61,  76,  77;  laws, 
see  Laws,  immigration; 
new  development  of,  121- 


155;  numbers  since  1820, 
25-27;  process  by  the 
steerage  and  Ellis  Island 
described,  55-62 ;  Restrict- 
ive League,  96;  "runner," 
80-82;  steamship  and  rail- 
road arrangements,  55, 
57,  62 

Indianapolis,  22 

Indians,  North  American, 
45 

Industrial  Commission,  31 
Insane,  excluded,  77,  78 
Insanity,     low  proportion 

among  Italians  and  Jews, 

140 

Institutional  church,  need 
of,  286,  288 

Ireland,  27,  43,  immigrants 
from,  25,  31,  72,  128;  po- 
tato famine,  25 

Irish,  as  immigrants,  19,  21, 
38,  39,  89,  126;  compared 
with  the  Italians,  136,  137 

Italian,  Benevolent  Insti- 
tute, 147;  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  145 ;  Hospital, 
147;  Immigration  Depart- 
ment, 138 ;  Savings  Bank, 

Italians,  as  immigrants,  19, 
34.  36,  37,  no,  130;  dis- 
tribution, 135,  136;  family 
cooperation,  207 ;  gener- 
ally peaceable  character, 
141,  142,  208;  illiteracy, 
22,  134;  in  New  York, 
I39>  145,  206;  number  en- 
tering, 19,  134,  135;  par- 
allel drawn  with  Irish, 
136,  137 ;  societies  for 
mutual  aid,  50,  no,  145, 
147;  spirit  of  converts, 
284;  thrift,  139-147,  207; 
women  homemakers,  206 


I 


332 


Index 


Italy,  92,  131-133;  govern- 
ment action  and  aid,  79, 
iii;  immigrants  from, 
25,  31,  72,  79,  107;  Royal 
Department  of  Emigra- 
tion, III;  sections  com- 
pared, 131-134 

Ives,  Mr.,  294 

Japanese,  as  immigrants,  40 ; 

Robinson  Crusoe,  40 
Jefferson,  President,  68 
Jerome  of  Prague,  166 
Jersey  City,  22 
Jewish  children  as  pupils, 

189 

Jews,  as  immigrants,  21,  95, 
96,  113,  128,  185-190; 
Austria-Hungarian,  21, 
186;  German,  185;  good 
qualities,  190;  number  of 
in  New  York,  186,  198; 
Roumanian,  186;  Russian, 
II,  12,  21,  185-190 

John  G.  Carlisle,  ferryboat, 
53 

Joseph  II,  Emperor,  of 
Austria,  167 

Juvenile  Court,  Jewish  chil- 
dren in,  190 

Kansas  City,  22 
Kosciusko,  172 
Kossuth,  a  Slovak,  175 

Labor,  immigration  of 
skilled  and  unskilled,  23, 
24 

Latin  races,  as  immigrants, 

113,  131 
Lawrence,  Kansas,  20 
Laws,  immigration,  58,  64; 

Bill  of  1906,  95  ;  problems, 

87-119;  protective,  65-68; 

restrictive,  68-84 ;  summa- 


ries   and  recommenda- 
tions, 309-313 
Lee,  Dr.  S.  H.,  136,  152 
Legislation,  see  Laws,  im- 
migration 
Letts,   the,  as  immigrants, 

179,  180 
Liberty,    American,    as  a 
working  leaven,  33,  34; 
statue  of.  57,  278 
Lieber,  Francis,  194 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  247 
Lithuanians,  as  immigrants, 
23,  36,  179,  180;  illiteracy, 
23 

Liverpool,  99 
Lodge,  Senator,  96 
London.  99 

Long  Island,  as  a  field  for 

Italians,  149 
Longfellow,  247 
Louisiana,  113 
Louisville,  23 
Luther,  172 

Lynn,  Massachusetts,  24 

Machinery,  effect  on  immi- 
gration, 43 

Madison,  President,  68 

Mafia,  the,  130,  141 

Magna  Charta,  34 

Magyars,  as  immgrants, 
21,  177-179  ;illiteracy,  23; 
see  also  Hungarians 

"Manifest"  for  immigrant, 
55.  56,  61 

Marine  Hospital  Service, 
59 

Marseilles.  99 
Mashek,  Nan,  166 
Massachusetts.  142,  173 
Mayo-Smith,  Richmond,  52, 

231,  238.  248 
McLanahan,  Samuel,  121 
McMillan,  Margaret,  225 


Index 


333 


Mexicans,    as  immigrants, 

21 

Mexico,  ingress  through,  92, 
93 

Michigan,  172 

Milwaukee,  170,  172 

Minneapolis,  21 

Mission  workers  for  immi- 
grants, 274 

Mississippi,  113,  183 

Mitchell,  Max,  102 

Mongolic  peoples,  124 

Montenegrins,  as  immi- 
grants, 21,  183 

Moravians,  as  immigrants, 
164 

Music,  love  of  by  Bohemi- 
ans, 169;  by  Italians,  144 

Naples,  99,  199 

National  Civic  Federation, 
90;  Slavonic  Society,  176 

Naturalization,  illegal  meth- 
ods, 93,  196,  214-215; 
reading  test  desirable,  249 

New  Amsterdam,  45 

New  England,  45,  148,  173, 
179;  how  it  can  remain 
Christian,  270,  271 

New  Haven,  23 

New  Jersey,  148,  173,  178 

New  Orleans,  183 

New  York,  Bible  Society, 
50 ;  State,  69,  70,  105,  107, 
178,  213 

New  York  City,  30-39,  53, 
54,  62,  63,  no,  112,  139, 
14s,  165,  166,  169,  172, 
176-189,  198,  200,  220; 
chief  port  of  entry  for 
immigrants,  53;  child  life 
and  labor  in,  220,  221 ; 
consumption  in,  220; 
cosmopolitan  character, 
198,  199;  foreign  peoples 


in,  139,  145,  150,  166,  172, 
178,  179,  186-189,  195-226 
Norway,    27 ;  immigrants 
from,  23,  25,  126 


Occupations,     of  various 

races,  23,  24 
Odessa,  99 

Ogg,  Frederick  A.,  92,  93, 

99,  100 
Ohio,  172 

Optimism,  8,  29,  262 
Ottawa,  Illinois,  20 


Padrones,  82,  92,  in 

Parochial  schools  among 
aliens,  246,  256 

Pauperism  in  the  United 
States,  218;  contrasted 
with  poverty,  217;  for- 
eign percentage  of,  219; 
increased  by  immigra- 
tion, 219 

Pennsylvania,  160-163,  172, 

175,  177,  179,  181,  183,  213 
People's  Forum  in  Cooper 

Institute,  250 

Persecution,  affecting  im- 
migration, 29,  30,  91 

Philadelphia,   38,    53,  172, 

176,  179,  187 
Pittsburg,  82,  172,  174,  176 
Poles,   as   immigrants,  22, 

35.  75.  76,  170-174;  clan- 
nish, 173;  illiteracy,  22, 
173;  independence,  173 

Polish,  Catholics,  174;  girl, 
story  of,  212 ;  Jew, 
"sweater,"  210;  National 
Alliance,  170 

Ports,  for  examination 
abroad,  98,  99;  of  entry, 
53 


334 


Index 


Portsmouth,    New  Hamp- 
shire, 20 
Poughkeepsie,   New  York, 

20 

Poverty  in  tlie  United 
States,  2i8;  defined,  217 

Presbyterian  Slavistic  Un- 
ion. 176 

Protestantism,  as  related 
to  immigrants,  9,  39,  47, 
202,  166-174,  177-188,  216, 
224,  251  ;  could  change 
conditions  as  to  child 
labor,  225,  226;  ought  to 
save  immigrants  from 
moral  degeneracy,  255 ; 
vast  opportunity  to  evan- 
gelize and  Americanize, 
267-299 

Providence,  Rhode  Island, 
21 

Public  Schools,  attacks 
upon  to  be  resisted,  248; 
duty  to  elevate,  248;  for- 
eign children  in,  198,  223, 
248 ;  power  to  American- 
ize, 234,  248,  256 

Publicity,  value  of,  83,  90 

Quarantine,  56,  62 

Railroads  and  immigrants, 
62,  63 

Reich,  Emil,  131 

Religious  census  of  immi- 
grants in  1900,  251 

Removal  Bureau,  for  di- 
recting Jewish  emigrants, 
III 

Reports,  Commissioner- 
General,  25,  143 

Riis,  Jacob,  194,  216 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  as 
related  to  immigrants, 
133.    151.    152,    167,  168, 


172-174.  177-184.  247,  248, 
251.  256,  257,  271,  297; 
efforts  to  get  public 
money  for  parochial 
schools,  246;  some  les- 
sons to  be  learned  from, 
279 

Roosevelt,  President,  51, 
73.  88,  92.  96.  179 

Rossi,  Adolpho,  138,  147 

Rotterdam,  99 

Roumanians,  as  immi- 
grants, 19,  21 ;  see  also 
Jcivs 

Rovinanek,  Mr.,  174,  175 
Russia,  34,  128;  immigrants 

from,  25.  81,  217 
Russian  empire,  19;  Jews, 

II,  19,  112;  persecution, 

29.  30 


Saint  Louis,  145,  198 
Saint  Nazairc,  99 
Saloon,  evil  effects  of,  216, 
217 

Sampson,  Sidney,  260 
San  Francisco,  41,  53,  73, 
148 

Saratoga  Springs,  New 
York,  20 

Sargent,  Commissioner- 
General,  28.  103.  158,  203 

Scandinavians,  27;  agricul- 
tural tendency,  127;  use- 
ful immigrants,  19,  21, 
126,  217;  small  illiteracy, 
23 

Schauffier,  Dr.  A.  F.,  30, 

195.  293 
Scotch,  as  immigrants,  21, 

126;  small  illiteracy,  23 
Scotland,  27 

Secretary  of  Commerce  and 
Labor,  77,  78 


Index 


335 


Seelye,     ex-President  of 

Amherst,  255 
Servian  immigrants,  21 
Settlement  service  by  reli- 
gion and  residence,  292, 
293 

Sioux  Falls,  Iowa,  20 

Slavic  home  missionaries, 
293,  294;  peoples,  124 

Slavs,  as  immigrants,  21, 
79,  107,  113,  127,  128,  157- 
192;  defined,  159,  160; 
displacing  other  peoples, 
160,  162;  illiteracy,  23, 164 ; 
largely  unskilled,  164; 
migration  of  recent  date, 
160;  mostly  mine  and  fac- 
tory workers,  164 ;  native 
workers  among,  285 

Slovaks,  as  immigrants, 
174-176;  from  agricul- 
tural class,  17s ;  organi- 
zations among,  176;  tin- 
ware workers,  176 

Slovenians,  as  immigrants, 

Slums,  peril  of  the  children 
in,  220-224 ;  poverty  and 
pauperism  of,  217-219 

Socialism,  bred  in  the 
slums,  202 

Societies  in  aid  of  immi- 
grants by  races,  no- 112 

Society  for  Italian  immi- 
grants, 50,  no.  III 

Solicitation,  as  affecting 
immigration,  42,  43,  80- 
82,  93 

South  American  immi- 
grants, 21 

South  Carolina,  1 13 

South,  the  New,  as  a  field 
for  immigrants,  113 

Southampton,  99 

Spahr,  Dr.  Charles  B.,  260 


Spanish    immigrants,  21, 

217 

Special  Inquiry  Board,  77 
Speranza,  Gino  C,  88,  145 
"Stairs  of  Separation,"  62, 
63 

Standards  of  living,  low- 
ered through  immigra- 
tion, 244 

States  and  countries  as  a 
scale  of  immigration,  24, 
25,  27,  28 

Statistics  of  immigration, 
aliens  since  Revolution, 
28;  arrivals  by  years 
from  1820  to  1905,  305 ; 
child  labor  in  New  York 
City,  and  in  United  States, 
226,  227;  countries  by  to- 
tals, 127-129;  debarred 
during  fourteen  years, 
and  by  race  or  people,  77, 
303 ;  distribution  by 
states,  105-107;  entries  at 
ports  and  through  Can- 
ada, 53;  estimated  immi- 
gration for  1905-6,  20  ; 
illiteracy,  21-23,  134,  164; 
increase  of  immigrants 
for  1905,  25;  inflow  since 
1820,  25-27 ;  insanity, 
140;  Italians,  by  years, 
locality,  and  occupation, 
134,  135,  143  ;  Jews,  chiefly 
Russian,  185,  186,  198; 
labor  skilled  and  un- 
skilled, 23,  24,  134,  164; 
mendicancy,  140;  money 
sent  from  United  States 
to  aid  immigrants,  31 ; 
present  annual  race  totals 
illustrated,  20-23 ;  race, 
sex,  and  age  of  immi- 
grants for  1905,  306;  reli- 
gious divisions  for  1900, 


336 


Index 


251;  savings  and  invest- 
ments of  Italians,  145, 
146;  Slavs  for  1905,  159, 
see  also,  for  distribution 
and  occupation,  165-183; 
tendency  among  Italians 
to  forsake  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  271 

Steamships  for  immigrants, 
55.  57;  overcrowding,  65; 
rate  cutting,  79;  steerage 
abuses  and  reforms,  65- 
68 ;  unkind  treatment,  57, 
58,  67;  unsanitary  ar- 
rangements, 65-67;  viola- 
tion of  laws,  78-84 

Stettin,  99 

Strong,  Dr.  Josiah,  9-16, 
193,  194,  256,  257 

Sunday  laws  and  observ- 
ance, as  affected  by  immi- 
gration, 72,  237,  241,  252- 
254;  Sunday-schools, 
among  immigrants,  284, 
294 

Sweat-shop,  description  of 
system,  209,  210 ;  reproach 
to  Christian  civilization, 
210;  victims  of,  210-213 

Sweden,  27 ;  immigrants 
from,  23,  25,  33,  37,  38, 
126 

Swiss,  as  immigrants,  21, 
28 

Switzerland,  27,  43 
Syrian  immigrants,  23,  39 

Tarifif,  effect  on  immigra- 
tion, 44 

Temperance,  large  measure 
of,  among  Chinese,  Ital- 
ians, and  Jews,  73,  141, 
190 

Tenement-houses,  descrip- 
tion of  life  in,  204-208; 


evils  01,  201 ;  exorbitant 
rents,  202;  model  block 
of  suggested,  288;  re- 
sponsibility of  landlords, 
202 ;  unsanitary  condi- 
tions of,  211 

Tent  campaign,  winning 
Italians,  282 

Teutonic  peoples,  123 

Texas,  113 

Thompson,  Dr.  Charles  L., 

117,  268 
Training  schools,  needed  in 

work  among  aliens,  286 
Trieste,  99 
Tuoti,  Mr.  G.,  145 
Turks,  as  immigrants,  21 ; 

illiteracy,  23 
Tymkevich,  Paul,  158 

United   Hebrew  Charities, 

111,  219,  277 

United  Kingdom,  see  Great 
Britain 

United  States,  agencies  of 
helpful  to  immigrants, 
50,  54,  57-63,  III,  274; 
■'assisted"  immigration 
to,  43,  93 ;  attraction  of, 
29-42 ;  Immigration  In- 
vestigating Commission, 

112,  113;  Industrial  Com- 
mission on  Immigration, 
141 ;  legislation  as  to  im- 
migrants, see  Laws,  im- 
migration; money  from 
relatives  in,  to  aid  immi- 
grants, 31 ;  national 
songs,  34;  Post-office,  an 
immigration  agency,  33 ; 
see  also  Commissioner- 
General  of  Immigration, 
Ports  of  entry 

Venice,  199 


Index 


337 


Vincennes,  Indiana,  20 

Virginia,  45,  175 

Vote,  foreign,  peril  of,  249 

Walker,    General  Francis 

A.,  232 
Ward,  Robert  D.,  194 
Warne,  F.  J.,  157,  158,  162, 

246 

Warsaw,  199 

Washington,    city    of,  24; 

President,  68 
Watchorn,  Commissioner 

Robert,  30,  82 
Welsh,  as  immigrants,  21, 

126 

Whelpley,  J.  D.,  16,  70,  79, 
94,  lOi 


Wisconsin,  167 

Women  immigrants,  18,  35, 
38,  39,  57,  61,  67,  75,  76, 
304 ;  special  inspection 
for,  61,  76 

Work  of  leading  denomina- 
tions for  foreign  popula- 
tion, 314-320 


Yiddish  language,  198 
Young  people,  as  creators 
of  public  sentiment,  197; 
opportunity  of  for  Chris- 
tian service,  10 


Ziska,  General,  166 


The  Forward  Mission  Study  Courses 


'  'Anywhere,  provided  it  be  forward."  — David  Livingstone 


Prepared  under  the  auspices  of  the 

YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

Executive  Committee: — Harry  Wade  Hicks,  S.  Earl 
Taylor,  John  W.  Wood,  F.  P.  Haggard,  T.  H.  P.  Sailer. 

The  Forward  Mission  Study  Courses  are  an  outgrowth 
of  a  conference  of  leaders  in  Young  People's  Mission 
Work,  held  in  New  York  City,  December,  1901.  To 
meet  the  need  that  was  manifested  at  that  conference 
for  Mission  Study  Text-books  [suitable  for  young 
people,  two  of  the  delegates.  Professor  Amos  R.  Wells, 
of  the  United  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  and  Mr.  S. 
Earl  Taylor,  Chairman  of  the  General  Missionary  Com- 
mittee of  the  Epworth  League,  projected  the  Forward 
Mission  Study  Courses.  These  courses  have  been 
officially  adopted  by  the  Young  People's  Missionary 
Movement,  and  are  now  under  the  immediate  direction 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Movement,  which 
consists  of  the  young  people's  secretaries,  or  other 
official  representatives  of  twelve  of  the  leading  mis- 
sionary boards  of  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

The  aim  is  to  publish  a  series  of  text-books  covering 
the  various  home  and  foreign  mission  fields,  and  written 
by  leading  authorities  with  special  reference  to  the 
needs  of  young  people.  The  entire  series  when  com- 
pleted will  comprise  perhaps  as  many  as  twenty  text- 


books.    A  general  account  will  be  given  of  some  of  the 

smaller  countries,  such  as  Japan,  Korea,  and  Turkey; 
but,  for  the  larger  fields,  as  China,  Africa,  and  India, 
the  general  account  will  be  supplemented  by  a  series  of 
biographies  of  the  principal  missionaries  connected  with 
the  country.  The  various  home  mission  fields  will  also 
be  treated  both  biographically  and  historically. 

The  following  text-books  have  been  published: — 

'  I.  The  Price  of  Africa.  (Biographical.)  By  S.  Earl 
Taylor. 

2.  into  All  the  World,  A  General  Survey  of  Missions. 
By  Amos  R.  Wells. 

3.  Princely  Men  in  the  Heavenly  Kingdom.  (Biographical.) 
By  Harlan  P.  Beach,  M.A.,  F.R.G.S. 

4.  Child  Life  in  Mission  Lands.  A  Course  of  Study  for 
Junior  Societies.    By  Ralph  E.  Diffendorfer. 

5.  Sunrise  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom.  A  Study  of  Japan. 
By  the  Rev.  John  H.  De  Forest,  D.  D. 

6.  Heroes  of  the  Cross  in  America.  Home  Missions.  (Bio- 
gr>»:;t)hical.)    By  Don  O.  Shelton. 


"^7.  Daybreak  in  the  Dark  Continent.  A  Study  of  Africa. 
By  Wilson  S.  Naylor. 

8.  The  Christian  Conquest  of  India.  A  Study  of  India. 
By  Bishop  James  M.  Thoburn. 

'  9.  Aliens  or  Americans?  A  Study  of  Immigration.  By 
Rev.  Howard  B.  Grose,  Ph.  D. 

These  books  are  published  by  mutual  arrangement 
among  the  denominational  publishing  houses,  to  whom 
all  orders  should  be  addressed.  They  are  bound  uni- 
formly, and  are  sold  for  50  cents,  in  cloth,  and  35  cents, 
in  paper,  postage  extra. 


Study  classes  desiring  more  advanced  text-books  are 
referred  to  the  admirable  series  published  by  the  Inter- 


denominational  Committee  of  the  Woman's  Boards. 
The  volumes  already  published  are: — 

Via  Christi.  A  Study  of  Missions  before  Carey.  By 
Louise  Manning  Hodgkms. 

Lux  Christi.  A  Study  of  Missions  in  India.  By  Caroline 
Atwater  Mason. 

Rex  CliristUS.  A  Study  of  Missions  in  China.  By  Rev. 
Arthur  H.  Smith,  D.D. 

Dux  ChristUS.  A  Study  of  Missions  in  Japan.  By  Rev. 
W.  E.  Griffis,  D.D. 

CliristUS  Liberator.  A  Study  of  Missions  in  Africa.  By 
Ellen  C.  Parsons. 

ChristUS  Redemptor.  A  Study  of  the  Island  World.  By 
Helen  Barrett  Montgomery. 


RACES  OF  IMMIGRANTS  FISCAL  YEAR  1905 


FIGURES  ON  THE  MAP  REPBESENT  THE  NUMBER  OF  IMMIGRANTS  OFTHE  RACES  NAMtO  COMING  FROM  EaCm  COUNTRV  INDICATED,  WHILE  THE  FIGURES  ON  TmE  BARS  REPRESENT  TmE 
TOTAL  NUMBER  OF  IMMIGRANTS  OF  THE  RACES  NAMED  COMING  FROM  ALL  COUNTRIES. 

THE  COLOR  ON  MAP  INDICATES  APPROXIMATELY  REGIONS  OF  THE  RACIAL  GRAND  DIVISIONS 

WHERE  THE  TERMS  'BOHEMIAN,"  ■  BULGARIAN,  '■  CROATIAN  AND  DALMATIAN  -  ARE  USED,  THET  REFER  TO  BOHEMIAN  AND  MORAVIAN, '  ■■BULGARIAN,  SERVIAN.  AND  MONTENEGRIN  " 
CROATIAN  AND  SLOVENIAN.    AND  "  DALMATIAN,  BOSNIAN.  AND  HERZEGOVl N IAN  ' 


I 


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DATE  DUE 


GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U..S  A. 

